


Home

by Angelikah



Series: Safehouse [2]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hope as an adorable child, Queen Caroline - Freeform, and also as a sassy teenager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:30:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4529043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelikah/pseuds/Angelikah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble collection serving as a sequel to The Safehouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Daycare

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a series of one-shots in the universe of my fic The Safehouse. Though I'd recommend reading that first, these one-shots could probably technically be read separately. These won't be in chronological order. In other words, there might be a one-shot of Hope at age eight right before a one-shot of Hope when she's three. I'll have Hope's age and the date of the story at the top for reference.  
> Unlike my chaptered stories (where each chapter is around 5k-7k words), these one-shots will vary in length. Some will be rather long and some will be short. This one is on the shorter side.  
> I hope you guys enjoy these as much as I enjoyed writing them :)  
> Enjoy!  
> -Angie

 

"Daycare" - August 2nd, 2013 - 16 months

* * *

 

"Hope, you need to let go."

Hope shook her head, her face still stubbornly resting against Caroline's knee, with her arms wrapped around her leg.

Caroline gently untangled Hope's arms and kneeled down next to her, looking Hope straight in the eye. Hope grabbed Caroline's wrists for balance. "Don't you want to make friends?"

Hope just glared at her, which made Caroline have to fight down a smile. "It'll be really fun."

Hope continued to stare at her stonily, her face arranged in such a similar expression to Klaus's that Caroline lost the battle and smiled. Her daycare teacher came over and bent down.

"Hi, Hope. My name is Melissa."

Hope immediately took a shaky step towards Caroline and gripped her arms harder, causing Caroline to wince. The nature spirit or whatever that decided that baby hybrids should be gifted with super strength should be shot. Or banished. Or something.

"Hope, don't you want to say 'hi' to Melissa?" Caroline asked, gently turning Hope around in her arms to face the teacher.

Hope half-heartedly jerked her hand towards the teacher, even though Caroline knew that she was perfectly capable of waving. Caroline shot Melissa an apologetic look. "I'll be back soon, okay?" She told Hope, disentangling herself so that Hope sat down.

As soon as Caroline took a step in the direction of the door Hope began to wail. Caroline squeezed her eyes shut tightly before turning around again. "Hope, I'll be back, okay? I promise."

Hope continued to cry, and now it was Melissa shooting Caroline a sympathetic glance. "She just has separation anxiety. She'll most likely be fine a little bit after you leave."

Caroline resisted the urge to snort. Hope would probably be throwing a fit for quite a while after she left.

The reason Hope had been taken to daycare by Caroline instead of by Klaus, Elijah, or Rebekah was because Caroline knew that this would happen. It seemed to her that in any situation where Hope let out so much as a hiccup, the preferred solution by the Original Siblings was to do exactly what Hope wanted, no matter what it entailed.

None of them would have gotten two feet away from her without picking her up and taking her back home.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Hope was very used to getting what she wanted when she wanted it, and as a result she often didn't understand why Caroline wouldn't give in.

She took another step towards the door, and Hope cried louder.

"Just go, she'll be fine in a minute," Melissa said reassuringly.

"I'll be back this afternoon, Hope," Caroline said, before briskly walking outside, slumping down on the curb and starting to cry.

Though she tried to be fair, she hated watching Hope cry when she could fix whatever it was her daughter was upset about, and even besides that, it was difficult to drop her off at a school with a bunch of strangers.

She felt another person sit beside her. "I'll be here the entire time, Miss Caroline. She'll be safe."

She turned to look at Ian, one of the hybrids that were stationed to watch over Hope at all times, and cracked a small smile, still sniffling. "Call me if anything happens."

"Of course, Miss Caroline."

"Stop calling me Miss Caroline," She said with a tired watery laugh, resurrecting the argument that had been going on for as long as she'd been in New Orleans.

"Blame the King," Ian said, winking at her, "If he had his way you'd be Queen Caroline."

She made a face. There was a difference between being respectful and being ridiculous. She didn't feel very queenly at the moment, and she doubted she would in the near future. "Yeah, well, I might just take him up on that so I can order you to call me by my name like a normal person."

He shrugged, an impish smile on his face. "If that's what you wish, Miss Caroline."

She laughed. She's always liked Ian, which was one of the reasons that he was the one stationed with her and Hope. Technically, Ian had been assigned to shadow Caroline directly, but for Hope's first day at Daycare it had been decided that she'd have Ian and another hybrid named Theo stationed near the building all day.

"I'm going to Starbucks."

"All right, Miss Caroline."

"Call me if anything happens."

"I will, Miss Caroline."

"If you're going to call me Miss Caroline all the time, can you at least not tack it on at the end of every single sentence?"

"Miss Caroline, I think I can do that."

She snorted at his deliberate misinterpretation of her request and called a goodbye to him over her shoulder before starting off to the coffee shop.

* * *

After a few hours of attempting to do productive things on her computer and failing miserably while she worried about Hope, Caroline arrived back at the Daycare about ten minutes before the pickup time. She peeked in the window and saw Hope sitting in the corner frowning in concentration as she built a complicated-looking lego structure.

The teacher seemed to be gathering the children for circle time to say goodbye, and Hope followed the directions, pouting at having to leave her lego blocks behind.

The second the clock hand hit two-thirty, Caroline walked in. Hope's face lit up for a moment before she schooled it back into a poker face—a habit she'd picked up from both Elijah and Klaus—and she took some shaky steps over before falling down again.

Caroline crossed the room towards her, and Hope reached up her arms for Caroline to pick her up.

"Did you have fun today?" Caroline asked.

"No." Hope said sullenly.

Hope generally didn't speak all that much, but besides some names, she could form all the words she had learned perfectly; she was just quiet.

"Why wasn't it fun, sweetie?"

"Mama," She said simply, glaring at Caroline accusingly.

Caroline sighed. "I'm sorry that I had to leave, but I wanted you to be able to make friends yourself."

"No."

Caroline sighed slightly, shifting Hope in her arms and walking towards Melissa.

"How'd she do?"

"Pretty normally for a first day. She's pretty shy, and she liked the blocks."

Caroline nodded, Melissa's response pretty much matching what she'd expected.

"Thanks."

"Of course. Bye, Hope."

Hope again flapped her arm unenthusiastically towards Melissa.

"Bye," She repeated dully, causing Caroline and Melissa to smile.

Caroline carried Hope outside to the car, where Ian was waiting with Theo at the wheel.

"Een!" Hope squealed, reaching an arm out. Ian sent a quick glance towards Caroline, silently asking permission. When Caroline nodded, he took Hope in his arms.

"Hello, Princess."

"Hi," Hope said, grabbing the fabric of his shirt.

"Miss Caroline, are you ready to leave?" Ian asked, turning to her.

Caroline sighed and nodded, stepping into the car and taking Hope from Ian's arms before he went to sit in the passenger seat in the front.

They drove back to the mansion, Hope sitting in her car seat looking out the window.

When Caroline finally got back and opened the front door, Rebekah immediately skidded to the foyer to greet them.

"Aunt Reba."

"Hello," Rebekah said, taking Hope out of Caroline's arms immediately, "How was it?"

"No."

"Hope, I believe that you meant to use the word, 'bad'." Elijah said, entering the room.

"She's one, she doesn't know all that many words yet," Rebekah said.

"Bad." Hope repeated.

Elijah shot Rebekah a triumphant smirk.

"Why was it bad, sweetie?"

Hope jutted out her lower lip. "Mama."

Caroline sighed. "I had to leave her there, and she didn't like that."

Rebekah looked scandalized. "You left her in a room with strangers and other children  _by herself_?"

"Um. Yeah. Kids go to daycare all the time. And she had Ian and Theo right there."

"Did Nik know about this?"

Caroline nodded slowly.

"What was he thinking?  _Was_  he thinking?" Rebekah said loudly, looking angry.

Caroline hurriedly took Hope from Rebekah so the other girl could make full use of hand gestures as she ranted, and she and Elijah exchanged a look.

"Niklaus is occupied at the moment, but he shall return in a little while," Elijah said quietly.

She nodded to show that she understood, and slipped out of the room towards the study, allowing Elijah to calm down Rebekah.


	2. Interruptions

 

"Interruptions" - January 10th, 2027 - Age 14

* * *

 

Caroline straddled him, her fingers digging into the sides of his muscled abdomen as she ground her barely-covered core against the bulge in his boxers. He groaned, gripping her hips harshly to pull her roughly against him. She bent down to press a bruising kiss to his lips, moaning softly when he roughly bit her bottom lip.

She let her fingers trail down to the bulge in his boxers, slipping them under the waistband and gripping his cock, squeezing it slightly to coax a harshly whispered expletive from his mouth.

Klaus buried his fingers in her hair, cradling her head, and pulled her down for another deep kiss. He hooked a finger around the slip of her thong, and was just about to slip it down the creamy skin of her thighs when they were interrupted.

"MOM!" Hope hollered from across the house, "I CAN'T FIND MY BACKPACK."

"Seriously?" Caroline mumbled, letting her head drop to rest on his chest.

"Seriously," Klaus deadpanned, softly pushing her off of him and reaching for his shirt. Before he could put it on, Caroline grabbed it out of his hands and pulled it over her head before wriggling into her jeans, which had been carelessly discarded the night before.

He gave her a questioning look and she nodded towards her now-destroyed pajama top lying on the floor before she rushed into the bathroom to wash her hands.

"MOM?"

Caroline sighed, walking out of the bathroom and drying her hands with a towel.

"DID YOU LOOK IN YOUR UNCLE'S OFFICE?" She shouted before giving Klaus a cross look. "Can you throw that in the hamper and put on some clothes? We don't want to scar her for life."

"WHICH ONE?"

He pulled himself out of bed, watching Caroline pad out of their bedroom towards Hope's voice, which was now claiming that she'd looked in Elijah's study already and it wasn't there. He listened with half an ear as Caroline yelled something about looking near the couch in the front room, and he laughed quietly when he heard Hope confirm that she had checked Elijah's office again and it had been there all along, causing Caroline to let out an annoyed huff.

He listened to make sure that Hope wasn't coming towards their side of the house and collapsed back into bed. He drifted off for a few minutes, waking up when he heard Caroline enter the room again.

"Did Theo take her?" He asked sleepily.

"Yeah. She should be on time today, although I wouldn't be surprised if she's early to homeroom. He drives like a crazy person."

"Come back to bed, love," He said gruffly, peering at her through one eye as she undressed.

"I can't. I have to take a shower and then I have a meeting at ten with the Williamsons. Well, Eliza Smith soon-to-be-Williamson. The groom's mother is getting a little too involved, and so I'm talking to the bride to make sure she actually approved everything."

She went to start the shower and he swung out of bed and followed her in, closing the door behind them. He gripped her around the waist from behind and began to kiss her neck.

"Klaus," She whined, "You're going to make me late."

He responded by a light nip on her ear, and she let out a sharp breath. He ground his erection into the curve of her ass, smiling into her neck when she spread her legs a little bit. He rubbed his cock against her slick folds, and she moaned softly, before gently disentangling herself from his arms and starting the shower. "I'm going to be late if you keep distracting me."

He smirked and started to get in the shower behind her, but she put a hand on his chest, gently pushing him away. "Klaus, seriously, I need to shower. I promise I'll make it up to you later."

Her hair was shining and water droplets were sliding down her body, leaving shining trails across her full breasts and taut stomach. He  _really_ didn't want to wait.

"Klaus," she said, her voice laced with warning, "You need to go. I  _promise_  I'll make it up to you."

"I'll hold you to that," he grumbled, walking out of the bathroom, but smirking at her answering shout telling him that he should make sure to remind her.

As if he'd let her forget.

* * *

Caroline resisted the urge to cradle her head in her arms and instead pasted on a smile while she watched the bride and mother-of-the-groom have an argument over the napkin colors.

She checked the clock and nearly sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, but our appointment time is up. Would you like to think about your options and let me know what your final decision is when we see the venue next Monday?"

"That sounds great, thanks," Eliza said, shooting Caroline a relieved look at the rescue from the argument with her soon-to-be mother-in-law.

"No problem. I'll meet you at the hall at noon, okay?"

She ushered them out of her office before shutting the door and leaning against it, taking a deep breath. After straightening her office a little bit, she gathered her things and prepared to leave to pick Hope up from school.

She ran her event planning business from a little office that she rented in an office complex in the French Quarter. It was small, but it had a large window facing towards the park, and it had enough room for her hyper-organized file cabinets and labeled drawers.

She pulled into the parking lot at Hope's high school just as the students started streaming out of the front building.

She liked to pick Hope up from school on the days she worked. Once Hope had turned about ten it had become a bit harder for Caroline to pass as her mother (not that Hope looked much like her anyway), which meant that Caroline had to spend extra time making sure that her clothes and make-up looked professional enough that she could just pass for aging well, rather than as Klaus's teenage trophy-girlfriend. Klaus had been turned when his human body was a little bit older, which allowed him to look like he was in his late thirties without too much effort.

Hope tapped on the window within a few minutes, giggling next to her friend Kenley, and Caroline rolled the window down.

"Sorry I didn't text you, but can I go over to Kenley's today?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes slightly. The girls were too giggly to just want to hang out together. "I guess that's fine, but you have to be home by nine, okay?"

"'Kay, Mom."

"And I'll send Theo over."

"No, Mom, don't…" Hope said, her voice turning into a whine.

"If you call your Dad and convince him that Theo doesn't need to be there, then I won't send him."

Hope scowled. "He'll never go for it, though."

Caroline shrugged, smiling a little apologetically. "Guess Theo will be going with you two, then."

Hope groaned, but Caroline heard Kenley whisper that she didn't mind because Theo was cute, and Caroline had to suppress a smile.

"Fine," Hope said sullenly, crossing her arms, "Can I go now?"

"Yep. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

By the time Caroline had finished speaking, Hope and Kenley were already halfway across the parking lot. Caroline let a small smile overtake her face. She was willing to bet that Hope and Kenley's sudden wish to hang out that day had to do with Kenley's parents being out of town for the weekend (which she only knew because Klaus made a conscious effort to keep track of the movements of anyone even slightly involved in Hope's life).

Honestly, Caroline was just glad that Hope's first year of high school was going as well as it was. She had a lot of trouble making true friends because of her prickly personality (she was  _definitely_ Klaus's daughter through and through) and spoiled upbringing, and her only true friend was Kenley, who moved into town when Hope was ten. Kenley had no idea that any supernatural being existed (meaning that she didn't have any reason to be impressed by or afraid of Hope or her family), and the two girls had bonded quickly.

They had yet to come up with a reasonable explanation for why Hope had bodyguards, but luckily Kenley seemed to be too polite to push the subject.

Caroline texted Theo to ask him to hang out around Kenley's for the evening and then drive Hope home, and then pulled out of the parking lot, humming along with the radio.

* * *

When she entered the front room, she strained her ears to see if there was anyone present in the mansion. The only noise that she heard was some rustling in Klaus's studio, which meant that they were alone in the house.

And, since Hope was at Kenley's and Eljiah was taking care of some business in London, they'd be alone all night.

She stopped in the bedroom to drop off her purse on the dresser and then headed to Klaus's studio, not bothering to be quiet since she knew he'd heard her come in.

She knocked on the open studio door and he turned around to smile at her. "What are you working on?" She asked, stepping carefully over some stray newspapers on the floor to approach the canvas he had been painting on.

"Birthday present for Bekah," He said, starting to clean up, "I didn't hear Hope come in with you."

"She's at Kenley's, so we're on our own tonight," Caroline said, looping her arms around his neck, "Did you have any plans?"

"No, but I believe that I was supposed to remind you of yours."

"Were you?" She asked, smirking.

"Yes. I seem to recall that you wanted to finish something that you started this morning."

She cocked her head to the side, widening her eyes as though she had just recalled something important. "Oh, right, I almost forgo—"

Her sentence was stopped by a rough kiss to her lips. Klaus rested his hands on her waist, digging his fingertips into her hips roughly, pulling her against him. She moaned into the kiss, allowing his tongue to dart into her mouth before he nibbled on her bottom lip.

She pulled back, a bit breathless. "I don't want to get paint on my clothes."

He rolled his eyes and sped them to their room, where he pressed her up against the door, attacking her neck with his lips as her fingers tangled in his hair.

She cocked her head to the side allowing him better access to her neck as he unbuttoned her top, pulling it off. She unzipped her own skirt, letting it fall to the floor and allowing him to grip her ass, pressing her already dripping pussy against the bulge in his jeans. She moaned and flashed them to the bed, pushing him down to sit on the duvet before dropping to her knees.

He groaned as he realized what she was about to do, making her smirk slightly while she unbuttoned his pants, pulling them off, and stroked him through his boxers. "I've been thinking about this all day," she admitted quietly, looking up at him through her lashes before tugging his boxers down, freeing his erection.

"Have you?" He asked, his voice slightly strangled as her hand wrapped around his cock, guiding it to her mouth.

She licked the tip before wrapping her lips around the head and sucking lightly, her hand wrapped around the base. He groaned, freeing her hair from its chignon and burying his fingers in her curls, gently pushing her towards him, trying to convey that he wanted her to take more of him into her mouth.

"More, love." He ground out, his voice rough.

She obliged, sucking harder as her lips descended farther down his shaft, moving one of her hands to stroke his balls while the other one kept pumping his dick while she sucked him off.

He greedily took in the sight of her on her knees in front of him, clad only in her underthings and her suede stiletto pumps, with her lips wrapped around his cock. Her creamy breasts were almost spilling out of her bra, but his eyes were glued to the lacy thong showing off the curve her perfect ass. He tried not to buck into her mouth, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, but he lost the battle when she sucked him in so far that the head of his cock touched the back of her throat before swallowing around him. "Fuck, Caroline. Harder, yes, just like that."

His fingers wound tighter into her hair as he thrust into her mouth, making her gag slightly. She was rubbing her thighs together trying to create some friction, and when he noticed he gently tugged her hair. He swore through gritted teeth when she gave him one last lick before letting go of his dick, smirking up at him.

He let her kick off her heels before she found herself under him, and she moaned loudly when he tore off her bra and thong and entered her with one harsh thrust, her hips moving to meet his. She wrapped her legs around his waist and scraped her nails down his back, her puffy lips parted slightly, curls scattered on the pillows like a halo.

He kissed her again, his tongue entering her mouth in time with his thrusts, relishing in her breathy sighs that were rapidly escalating into moaned expletives when he moved his lips down to the juncture of her shoulder and neck.

"Klaus…right there…yes… _fuck_ …harder…"

She let her fangs descend and scraped them across his throat before biting him, moaning as his blood hit her mouth. She came hard, pulling her fangs out of his neck to cry out. He kept slamming into her as she rode out her orgasm, his movements faster and harsher the longer he went. Watching her writhe under him as he fucked her, her chest heaving with her breathless moans, and her neck exposed almost made him come undone. He let his fangs come out and waited for her frantic nod before burying them in her neck, his hips moving more frantically before he spilled inside her.

"Worth the wait?" She asked him once he rolled off of her, a little breathlessly.

"Definitely," He said hoarsely, before pulling her in to kiss her softly again, his already half-hard cock brushing her thigh.

"Mmm," she sighed, pulling away from him, "Round two, already? That was quick."

He grinned, pulling her on top of him. "As you are no doubt aware, that is one of the many benefits of vampirism, love."

She snorted, burying her nose in his neck. "I don't know how it would be possible to not be aware of it."

He trailed a finger up her inner though before brushing her clit, causing her to shudder and spread her legs a little bit wider. "Round two, then?" He asked cheekily, inserting a finger into her, causing her to hiss.

"Yes, please."

He inserted another finger, causing her to moan and bite down on his shoulder with her blunt teeth as he stroked her ass and the backs of her thighs with his other hand.

They both stiffened as they heard Caroline's phone start vibrating in her purse, and she gave a long-suffering sigh before starting to slide off of him, but he held her tightly in place.

"Just ignore it, love."

She shook her head as she pushed herself off of him, pulling her phone out of her purse. He heard Hope's voice on the other line, and Caroline closed her eyes in exasperation, which would have made him smile if he wasn't just as annoyed as she was. "Yes, that's fine. I don't know why you didn't just ask Theo to give you a ride…All right. Well, text me or your dad if you want to stay over there…Yes, Theo would be staying over with you on the couch or whatever…All right. I love you too, sweetie."

Caroline hung up the phone and put it back down on their dresser before rubbing her temples and flopping down on the bed next to him.

He pulled her against him and she laid her head against his chest. "This is all your fault." She said petulantly.

He laughed quietly. "My fault?"

Caroline nodded. "Your family literally has the  _worst_  timing I've ever seen in my entire life."

"You're also a part of this family, love, I hope you realize."

"I meant genetically."

He shrugged, pulling her in closer. "I'd rather blame Hayley."

Caroline snorted. "You can't just blame every bad quality that Hope has on Hayley."

He looked mildly affronted. "Of course I can, love. I'm the King, I can do whatever I want."

"Except fucking up my files in my office."

"Except fucking up the files in your office," He agreed solemnly, making her giggle.


	3. Home Alone

 

"Home Alone" - October 11th, 2017 – Age 5

* * *

 

He really should have known better.

Caroline had left barely fifteen minutes ago, and he already knew that she was going to have an entire list of "I-told-you-sos" as soon as she came back. She had gone out for the evening to celebrate her birthday with the doppelganger and the Bennett witch (although what they were going to do on Wednesday night, he had no idea) and left him alone with Hope.

Most of his annoyance at missing Hope's first six months of life had vanished as soon as Caroline made him change Hope's diaper for the first time. When he complained, he got a ten-minute lecture about how much easier it was to take care of Hope now, and that he had nothing at all to whine about.

When he pointed out that Big Bad Original Hybrids don't whine, she just said, "Well, as you're the first and only test subject, I'd say that generally they do."

Either way, while he was  _much_  more competent at taking care of Hope now, he found it rather draining most of the time. It wasn't that he wasn't an involved parent, but Caroline had a lot of rules and he found that playing "good cop, bad cop" (as she so aptly put it) benefited him greatly—No matter how ironic the fact that he played the 'good cop' was. Unfortunately, that meant his five-year-old daughter knew exactly how to push his buttons to get what she wanted.

If there had ever been any doubts about whether Hope was his daughter, they would be blown out of the water the second Caroline walked out the door and Hope turned to him with her big blue eyes and an all-too-innocent look on her face.

"Do we have any candy?"

He frowned. He knew as well as she did that she wasn't allowed candy after four on school nights. That was one of Caroline's rules, though he'd never bothered asking why. Her rule was (generally non-negotiable) law for him once she put her foot down, so he just sort-of assumed that it should be for everyone else, too.

This meant that there were a lot of her little rules that he didn't know the reasons for, and just assumed that she knew what she was talking about. The "no candy after four" rule was one of them.

"You're not allowed any candy after four on school nights, love. You know that."

Hope's face screwed up and her eyes filled with tears. She sniffled. "Why?"

That was an excellent question that he didn't know the answer to.

Caroline had once told him that "because I said so" was  _not_ an acceptable answer to anything Hope asked, and that he had to give her a reason for whatever he was telling her to do if she asked why.

"Because Caroline said so."

Close enough.

She sniffled again. "What about ice cream?"

While it was true that ice cream was not candy, he had a feeling that it was in the same general category.

"No."

She jutted out her lower lip. "Please, Daddy?"

He quickly averted his eyes and looked towards the ceiling. "No, sweetheart."

He made the mistake of looking back down at her and saw a single tear run down her cheek.

 _Fuck._   _Don'tfallforitdon'tfallforitgoddamnit…_

"All right, just a little bit. But don't tell Mum, okay?"

"I won't," She promised eagerly, nodding.

All of her tears had mysteriously disappeared, and Klaus inwardly groaned.

They went to the kitchen and Klaus opened the freezer, scanning it for ice cream. Hope sat at the counter island patiently, her cheek resting on her hand. He quickly spooned out a bit of Mint Chocolate Chip into a plastic bowl and put it in front of Hope with a spoon.

She smiled, showing the gap where she had lost a tooth a few months earlier. He had been there when it happened, and Caroline had to quickly assure him that Hope losing her teeth at her age was completely normal. His daughter had a habit of wiggling her other loose tooth with her tongue, and even though he'd seen many a bloodbath with half-destroyed bodies leaking out inner organs, his daughter playing with her loose tooth "squicked him out" (as Caroline put it).

He picked up the note Caroline had left on the counter that was supposed to remind him what they had to do that night. Lord help the residents of New Orleans if she ever decided that she wanted to help rule it; every one of his subjects would be on color-coded schedules with detailed to-do lists in no time at all.

_10/11_

_Hope needs to clean her room after dinner. Her bedtime is at_ _ **8 o'clock**_ **.**   _Don't let her talk you into letting her stay up later. French bedtime story tonight._

_I'll be back around eleven._

_Love, Caroline_

He dampened a paper towel and gave it to Hope to wipe off her face and threw it out when she handed it back. "What do you want for dinner, love?"

"Macaroni and cheese, please."

"All right. Is there anything in particular you would like to do while Mum's out tonight?"

Hope shrugged. "Can we watch Barney?"

Klaus nearly groaned out loud. There was  _nothing_ in the world that he loathed more than that goddamn dinosaur, and there were a lot of things in the world that he hated, so Barney had to work very hard to beat all of them for that title.

"Not tonight, love." He said, filling up a pot with water and putting it on the stove to boil.

"Candyland?"

He could deal with that.

"All right. Why don't you go set up the board in the dining room and we can play while we eat."

"Okay."

She bounced out of the room and he heard her rustling in the living room to find the box and return to the kitchen. He grabbed a blood bag from the fridge and squeezed half the contents out into a coffee mug, putting it into the microwave, before capping off the blood bag and putting it back.

The water was boiling, and he poured the noodles in and set the timer, grabbing his mug of blood out of the microwave and sipping contentedly as he walked into the kitchen where Hope was sitting patiently at the table, shuffling the cards over and over.

"I want to be blue," She announced as soon as he set his mug down.

They selected their colors and Hope went first, happily jumping ahead two purple squares. They played until the timer went off, and Klaus stood to drain the noodles.

"Can I put the cheese in?" Hope asked, jumping up.

"Of course, love."

He drained the pasta and poured in the milk and butter before letting her dump the cheese packet into the pasta. He wrinkled his nose. That bright of an orange was not a good color for food.

After letting her enthusiastically stir for a few moments, he emptied the pot into a bowl for her and then put the leftovers in the fridge.

"Do you want apples or carrots?"

"No."

"You have to pick one."

"No."

"Carrots, then."

"No."

He sighed and turned to his daughter. "Hope, you have to have a vegetable or fruit with dinner, you know that."

She had her arms crossed over her chest, and she stared at him sullenly before turning on her heel and walking back to the kitchen.

He grabbed a smaller plastic bowl and dumped a few carrots into it, bringing it out to the kitchen and setting it in front of Hope. She made a disgusted face and picked up a carrot between two of her fingers, inspecting it as though she was holding a cockroach.

"Hope, don't be dramatic. Eat your carrots."

She pouted, but seeing his serious expression, she stuck a carrot into her mouth, making a show of chewing it and swallowing it.

She picked up a card from the top of the deck and moved her marker up a few squares. He did the same. Hope eventually won, and Klaus had her clean up the game while he put the dishes in the sink (a hybrid would take care of them later).

"Time to clean your room, love."

"But I don't want to."

"You need to."

"I don't want to."

"Hope, this is non-negotiable."

"I don't care," She said loudly, glaring at him.

He had never seen her this disagreeable before, and raised an eyebrow. It was easier to put his foot down when she was throwing a tantrum. "You need to clean your room."

She glared at him, her eyes narrowed. "No."

"I'm going to count to five, and if you're not on your way to your room by then you're not allowed any television until Friday afternoon."

"But I don't want to."

"One…"

"No!"

"Two…"

She huffed and made her way up the stairs. He followed her, feeling rather pleased with himself. When they got to her room he frowned, trying to figure out why she had been so opposed to it. There was a dirty dress on the floor, and some toys scattered around the room that were supposed to be in the toy bucket, but other than that there wasn't really anything to do besides make the bed.

She sullenly threw the dress into the hamper in the closet and dropped all of her toys back into the bucket where they belonged, before carefully pulling her sheet and comforter into place and tucking them down.

He checked his phone and found that it was only five forty-five. "Would you like to watch a movie before bed?"

"Fine."

"What would you like to watch?"

"The Little Mermaid."

"All right, then."

She sprinted down the hallway to the second floor living room, making him raise his eyebrows. She was certainly cranky and hyper that night, and he wasn't able to put his finger on why.

When he sped after her to the living room, he found her just about to put the DVD into the player.

"Hope, you can't touch the entertainment system, you know that."

She pouted. "I was being really careful."

He carefully took the DVD out of her hand and set it into the tray before grabbing the remote and flicking the television on, scrolling through the different inputs until he found the DVD player.

She sat on the floor engrossed by the film, singing along with all the songs, while he took the opportunity to check his e-mail and do some work. He realized the movie was over when Hope poked him hard in the knee. He sighed, closing his laptop, and got up to put her to bed.

"Bedtime."

"No it's not. Bedtime is at eight."

"Yes, but you need to change into your pajamas and brush your teeth as well. Do you have a preference as to your book tonight?"

"The Dr. Seuss fish book."

He nodded and sent her off to change and get ready for bed. He looked through her bookshelf to find the book, and by the time he had found it she was already sitting on her bed.

"Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yeah."

"Did you brush your teeth  _tonight_?"

She pouted and got out of bed again. "I don't know how you and Mum always  _do_  that."

It was because he couldn't smell the toothpaste on her, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

He listened to make sure that she actually brushed her teeth and when she came back she sat against the headboard, looking at him expectantly.

"We're doing the French version tonight."

She pouted, but held out her arms for the book. Now that Hope was in Kindergarten, they had her read the books to them. She opened it and smoothed down the first page.

"Poisson Un, Poisson Deux, Poisson Rouge, Poisson Bleu…" She read carefully, pronouncing the words perfectly.

He smiled as he read over her shoulder, although by now he could probably recite both language versions from memory.

"Poisson Noir, Poisson Bleu, Poisson Âgé, Poisson Bébé…"

When she was done reading, she handed the book to him and he set it back in her bookshelf. He helped her get under the covers and she immediately grabbed Olaf, her stuffed wolf that she always slept with, and hugged it to her chest.

He kissed her on the forehead and walked to the door.

"Goodnight, Hope."

"'Night, Daddy."

He closed the door behind him, leaving it open a crack so that the light could trickle in from the hallway, and headed to the library to read for a bit. He heard some sniffles from Hope's room around ten o'clock and immediately rushed up the stairs, cracking open the door. She was sitting up in bed, hugging Olaf to her chest.

"What's wrong, love?"

She sniffled. "I had a bad dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked hesitantly, pulling the chair back next to her bed to sit down.

"It was…I dunno. I was in a forest, and there was this giant monster…" She trailed off slightly, looking a bit lost.

"Go on," He encouraged her.

"And it had scary yellow eyes, and it growled at me and I ran away but I couldn't run, and I heard it behind me, and I knew it was going to try to bite me…" She said in a rush, her words almost tripping over themselves.

She looked terrified, and Klaus hesitantly reached out and touched her shoulder. She turned and hugged him, starting to cry, and he rocked her back and forth. "It was just a dream, love. It's not real, don't worry."

"It felt so  _real,_  though," She mumbled into his shoulder, hiccupping slightly.

"Nothing can attack you in the house, all right? We've had the best witches put barriers around the house, and even if they did manage to get through, Dean and Charlotte guard the property at night."

"But what if Dean and Charlotte get hurt?"

"Then you'll have me."

She sniffled. "Promise?" She asked, pulling away a little bit.

"I promise," He said, gently smoothing the covers down as she rested her head on the pillow, "Do you want your nightlight on tonight?"

She nodded, and he leaned down and turned it on.

"Do you think you'll be able to get back to sleep?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Just call if you need something. I'll hear you."

"Okay. Good night, Daddy."

He smoothed her hair back. "Goodnight, love."

Since he was up anyway, he walked back to the kitchen to prepare himself some more blood. He had only been there for a few minutes when heard the front door unlock and Caroline came in, kicking off her shoes. "How was your time with the doppelganger and the Bennett witch?"

She rolled her eyes, sinking down next to him and stealing his cup from him, taking a sip. "It was fine. We went out for dinner and then they dragged me to some bar."

He scowled as she drained his mug, and she grinned at him.

"How was she tonight?"

"Her room's clean if that's what you mean," He said, smiling slightly at Caroline's embarrassed smile, "She had a nightmare though."

Caroline frowned. "Really?"

He nodded. She narrowed her eyes suddenly. "Did you give her candy?"

"No…" He said, trying not to look guilty. Unfortunately, Caroline didn't seem to believe him.

She sighed, glaring at him. "Klaus, there's a _reason_  that she can't have candy before bed."

He put his hands up in surrender. "I didn't know, love."

"She's okay though, right?"

"Yes. She's back in bed, she should be asleep by now."

They both paused to listen to Hope's deep breathing.

Caroline yawned. "All right. I'm going to change and go to bed; I'm beat."

Klaus nodded. "I'll be up in a moment.  _Someone_ stole my midnight snack."

She smiled unapologetically. "Just don't take too long, okay?"

"Yes, yes. I'll be right there, sweetheart," He said, his gaze lingering on the sway of her hips as she sauntered away.

He sighed as he washed out his mug and prepared a new one. He wasn't happy that Hope was having nightmares, but he did consider the night to be a relative success. He finished his blood and then strained his ears in the silence to pick up on her deep breathing. After reassuring himself that his daughter was peacefully asleep, he allowed himself a small smile before heading up the stairs.


	4. Halloween

 

Halloween - October 31st, 2028 - Age 16

* * *

Caroline knew what it was like to be sixteen.

In fact, in her humble opinion, she remembered it  _way_ too well, and at this point she had the utmost sympathy for her mother. Looking back, though she wouldn't win any mother-of-the-year awards or anything, her mother's patience was practically saintly.

"Why won't you ever let me do anything fun?" Hope yelled, tears streaming down her face.

"Hope, I'm not preventing you from having fun, I'm preventing you from walking down main street with your friends at two in the morning in a sexy nurse outfit."

Yeah. She knew exactly what slut-shaming was. But the second that her daughter bought her first bra that shit went straight out the window. Yes, her daughter should be able to express herself, but not with her ass hanging out of her skirt and her breasts popping out of her top like two awkwardly overstuffed crepes.

There's sexual empowerment, and then there's flashing your father's minions that were twenty years her senior while they were playing bodyguards. Not that she didn't trust Ian and Theo, but it was still completely inappropriate.

Speaking of…

"Theo and Ian will be with us the whole time, It's not like I'm going to get dragged off and kidnapped."

"It doesn't matter. You'll be home by midnight. That decision is final."

"It's not fair!"

"Why do you even want to go out for that long? You know that you, Charlotte, and Kenley are going to be exhausted by eleven anyway, there's no reason to stay out that late."

And by 'exhausted,' Caroline meant 'shitfaced,' but it was probably better not to say anything.

"It doesn't matter why, I just  _do_."

Caroline's eyes narrowed. "Well unless you can give me a  _very_ good reason why you should be allowed out until two in the morning with your friends looking like that, I don't think I can endorse this."

"Can't you just let me do what I want?"

She was spiraling, and Caroline really didn't want to get into it when Hope would just shout the same six things over and over until she was crying too hard to even talk—yes, they'd been through this before multiple times—and then shut herself up in her room for hours.

Again, her mother was a fucking saint.

"No, Hope. I'm your mother, and I make the rules. Unless you'd like to take this up with your father, there's no reason to keep arguing about it."

Caroline didn't congratulate herself on that particular point, but as a red-lipped, curly-haired, and cat-eyed Hope stood about ten feet away from her with her hands on her hips wearing a Halloween costume that clung to her like a second skin and platform patent-leather heels, Caroline was  _very_ sure that Klaus wouldn't even let her within two feet of the front door looking like that. In fact, it was a  _really_ good thing that her father couldn't see her, because if he did he'd—Oh.

Klaus was standing behind Hope in the doorway to the backyard, apparently having just gotten back from whatever he was doing with a book under his arm and a look on his face that Caroline associated with one that a person might wear if they were compelled to choke their own puppy.

Hope apparently hadn't noticed. "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my  _real_ mom!"

It seemed like the world stilled for Caroline in that second. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Hope as soon as she realized what had come out of her mouth, and Klaus looked on furiously from the doorway.

Caroline's eyes filled with tears and she saw Klaus closed his eyes tightly and take a deep breath trying to calm himself. In an instant he was next to Caroline and pointing up the stairs.

"Hope. Room.  _Now_ ," He said, so quietly that if the mansion hadn't been silent neither Caroline nor Hope would have heard it.

Hope choked out a sob before running up the stairs, and Klaus turned to immediately pull Caroline into his arms, cradling her head against his chest.

Her shoulders were shaking as she sobbed, and Klaus pressed a kiss to her temple. "She didn't mean it, love. You know that, she's just angry."

"B-but it's t-t-true…I'm not he-her mother…" Caroline said, barely getting the words out through her tears.

"Yes you are," Klaus said, rocking her, "You know she already regrets it, you saw her face."

"It d-doesn't mean she didn't m-m-mean it when she s-said it."

Caroline continued sobbing into his chest and gripped his Henley in her fists tightly, using it to anchor herself while Klaus remained silent, stroking her hair as she cried.

"Sh-she h- _hates_ m-me."

"No she doesn't, she's just upset."

"M-maybe I should have l-let her go…"

"Go where? What was she screaming about, anyway? I only just got back."

"She wanted to stay out with her friends tonight."

"In  _that_?" He asked, scandalized.

"It's Halloween. She has an excuse to wear it," Caroline said with a watery laugh, "But I wasn't about to let her stay out till two in the morning in it."

"She was going to leave the house in  _that?_ " He asked again, seeming to not understand why Caroline was even contemplating having allowed Hope out in the first place.

"Things are a little different now than when you were a teenager, you know. When I was sixteen I wore something similar."

He perked up. "Do you still have it?"

She gave a hiccup-y laugh and poked him hard in the side. "Perv."

"Just for you love," He said, squeezing her slightly before letting go, keeping his arms around her waist and letting her rest her head against his shoulder.

"But really, it's not so much the outfit as it is the time of night. I don't think it would have flown if she was wearing a snowsuit."

Klaus nodded. "Well you know that if I had my way she wouldn't be allowed out after dark at all."

Caroline snorted. "That seems like an excellent way to make her hate you," she said, starting to cry again when she registered what she'd said.

"You know she didn't mean it, Caroline."

"I wonder what Hayley would have done," Caroline said quietly, peering up at him.

He shrugged. "We'll never know. But, something tells me that she wouldn't be doing nearly as well as you, seeing as she killed herself about a month after Hope was born."

"Not funny," Caroline reprimanded.

He gave her a reproachful look and kissed her temple, which he tended to use as an all-purpose apology when he didn't know quite what he was supposed to be apologizing for.

They could both hear Hope's sobs echoing from her room on the floor above them, and Caroline winced.

"Sweetheart, it'll be fine. We'll just let her cry it out for a bit and then I'll go up and talk to her. All right?"

"'Kay."

They stood there for a few moments before they heard a rustling at the front door. Caroline disentangled herself from Klaus and opened it to see Kenley and Charlotte on the doorstep, Kenley with her fist raised about to knock.

"Hi, Mrs. M, is Hope ready yet?" Kenley asked brightly.

Caroline sighed. "Not yet. Why don't you two come in and I'll get you some hot chocolate. You've got to be freezing in those."

Kenley was wearing what might have been the tightest white peplum dress that Caroline had ever seen in her life, with an incredibly low neckline, fluffy angel wings, and a gold laurel crown. Her long brown hair was done in perfect half-knot, and Caroline was surprised that the she hadn't tripped coming up the path in her six-inch gold strappy heels.

Charlotte, on the other hand, had her red hair down in beachy waves and was wearing what Caroline assumed to be a  _very_ creative interpretation of the little mermaid; purple bikini top, black hot-pants, and sky-high green platforms.

She opened the door wider for them to enter and grinned at Klaus's disgusted look. " _Their_ parents let them out like this?" He demanded to Caroline in a low voice.

"They know Hope has Theo and Ian," Caroline said, smiling slightly and following the girls into the kitchen while Klaus went up the stairs.

Caroline put some milk on the stove for it to heat up and chatted with the girls for a few minutes, keeping half an ear on the conversation going on upstairs.

* * *

"Hope, may I come in?" Klaus asked, knocking firmly on the door, his tone making it clear that letting him in wasn't optional.

The door opened a crack and he saw his daughter peer tentatively out at him before she opened the door to let him inside. Her eyes were red, and she was sniffling slightly as she slumped down onto the bed rubbing her face furiously with her hands, trying to clear the tears. He let her compose herself for a few moments, making a show of looking away while she got herself together, before sitting down on her desk chair and turning towards her.

"I'm sorry," She stumbled out quickly before he could speak, "I feel awful. She was just making me so  _mad_ , and I wanted to hurt her feelings and so I picked the worst thing to say that I could, and now you both hate me."

Klaus sighed. "Caroline and I don't hate you, Hope. I'm very angry with you, I'll admit, and I know that your Mum's not all that happy with you, either."

"I'm sorry."

"I know you are, love. What do you think your consequence should be?"

Caroline had read somewhere that when you're punishing kids (or rather, 'giving them consequences'), especially teenagers, you should let them set their own punishment and then adjust it accordingly. Apparently it increased personal responsibility or some sort of bullshit like that.

"I should apologize," Hope said promptly.

"And?"

She bit her lip. "And…I shouldn't be allowed out with Kenley and Charlotte tonight," She said, her voice shaking slightly.

"Well, I agree. However, I know you've been looking forward to tonight for awhile, and Kenley and Charlotte are already here, so I propose that you choose to either not go out tonight and come home directly after school for the rest of the week, or you may go out tonight until midnight, come directly home from school every day for the rest of the week  _and_ lose your internet privileges as well. Does that sound fair?"

Hope nodded, still sniffling. "I'd like to go out."

He nodded, having expected that, and got up. "I'll let your friends know that you're on your way down."

"Actually, could you just send them up? I need help with my make-up."

"Of course, love. Although, I'd also highly recommend that you wear the skirt that I'd assume came with that costume rather than the belt you're currently wearing."

"This did come with the costume."

He wrinkled his nose, which made her giggle. "It's not the eleventh century anymore, Dad."

"I'm aware of that. Well, I'll just send them up."

"All right, Dad," She said, hugging him quickly, "Thanks."

He ruffled her hair, causing her to squeak and glare at him before heading back down the stairs.

* * *

Klaus sent Kenley and Charlotte up to Hope's room once he got down to the kitchen and then sat down at the kitchen table next to Caroline, who was sipping a mug of hot chocolate. He hoped that she was calmer now, because he honestly had almost hit his emotional tolerance threshold for the night, and he didn't want to end up blowing up because he couldn't deal with it.

"You were really good with her."

"She's still going to go out in that monstrosity, isn't she?"

Caroline laughed, and Klaus was relieved at the sound. At least she wasn't as upset. "Probably."

He nodded slowly, and they were both silent for a few moments.

"Do you think that she wishes Hayley was still alive?" Caroline asked in a small voice, giving Klaus a sideways look.

"She didn't even know her," Klaus said, his voice hard.

Caroline took the hint and didn't pursue the subject. Soon enough, Hope and her friends were bounding down the stairs giggling with each other, and Hope told her friends to wait for a few minutes before walking into the kitchen.

"Mum," Hope said, shifting uncomfortably, "I'm sorry I said that. I didn't mean it."

Caroline got up and hugged Hope, Hope clung to her for a few moments before Caroline let go. "Hey, c'mon, don't cry. You don't want to ruin your make-up," Caroline said, smiling.

"I love you, Mum."

"I love you too, and I accept your apology. Have fun, okay? And if you're going to get shitfaced, have Theo buy the alcohol so that you don't have to deal with your fake IDs. You don't have a purse."

Hope shot her a look of complete disbelief. "I was sixteen pretty recently, you know," Caroline said, smiling slightly.

Hope gave her a brilliant smile and then skipped out after her friends.


	5. How I Met Your Mother

"How I Met Your Mother" - September 18th, 2026 - Age 14

* * *

 

He was in the library when heard the door open and close, and he immediately headed towards the foyer.

"Hey, Dad," Hope said, dropping her backpack by the door and kicking off her shoes.

"Hello, love. How was your day?"

She shrugged. "Fine."

"Do you have homework?"

"Yep."

"Are you going to start it now?"

"Nope," She said, breezing past him towards the staircase.

"When are you going to do it?" He called after her.

"Later," She said, before hurrying up the stairs as quickly as possible.

"All right," He said, turning back to go to the library.

He knew Caroline would tell him that he was giving up too easily and cutting her too much slack, but he didn't see the issue. If she said she'd do it later, she'd do it later.

"Dad?" Hope asked, poking her head over the rail of the staircase one floor up.

"Yes?"

"When will Mum be home?"

"I don't know. Soon, I'd assume. Why?"

Hope shrugged. "No reason."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but she just gave him an innocent grin that didn't fool him for a second before heading to her room. He decided not to ask for now, knowing that if it was anything important Caroline would tell him, and returned to the library.

* * *

"Hope?" Caroline asked, poking her head into her daughter's room, "Your Dad said you wanted to talk to me?"

Hope looked up from her laptop, which was balanced on her knees. "Yeah. I need some advice."

"Okay, what's up?"

Caroline took a seat at the end of Hope's bed and crossed her legs in front of her. Hope bit her lip. "Promise not to tell Dad?"

Caroline frowned. "Depends on what it is, I guess."

Hope typed something on her computer and then turned the screen around so that Caroline could see.

IT'S ABOUT A BOY

"Oh," Caroline said, completely understanding the issue, "I'll be right back."

She left for a few minutes and returned with a bowl of sage, which she dropped a match into and set by the door before sitting back down again.

"All right, what's going on?"

"Kenley heard from Carla who heard from Nicole that Jeff Swayze likes me. Like, like-likes me."

Caroline suppressed a smile. "Okay, and do you 'like-like' Jeff Swayze?" She asked, using air quotes.

Hope shrugged. "I guess so. I just…what if Nicole was lying and he doesn't like me?"

Caroline sighed. "Well, then he doesn't like you."

Hope glared at her. "That's not very helpful."

"Sweetie, there's not much you can do. If he likes you, he's got excellent taste. If he doesn't, that's his loss."

"What do I do about it, then?"

"Well, you can either wait to see if he asks you out, or you can ask him out yourself."

Hope pursed her lips, apparently not liking either option. "How do I tell him I like him without, like,  _telling_ him?"

Caroline's lips twitched. "Just be yourself."

"Still not helpful."

"Smile a lot. Make a point of being interested in what he has to say…Trust your gut. Really, there's not much you can do to see if he likes you without overanalyzing everything unless he tells you something."

"There's a dance coming up," Hope said thoughtfully.

"Are you hoping he'll ask you?"

Hope nodded.

"Well, if he doesn't after the first few days, don't be shy about going with someone else. Just because you'll be on a date with them doesn't mean that you aren't allowed to share a friendly dance with Jeff."

"Did you ever go to any school dances?" Hope asked.

Caroline had to fight to stop herself from laughing. "Quite a few. I was the head of the dance committee in high school. In fact, your Dad even took me to one or two of them."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Were they fun?"

_When we weren't trying not to die…_

"Yeah, usually."

Hope looked thoughtful for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "How did you know that Dad liked you?" She asked.

Caroline smirked. "It was hard not to," seeing Hope's expression, she elaborated, "He was nice to me."

Hope frowned. "He's nice anyway."

Caroline tried hard not to laugh, really, she did, but she couldn't help the giggles bubbling out of her. "No, he's really not."

Hope cocked her head to the side. "I don't get it."

"Well, I guess he's always on his best behavior around you."

"Can…Can you tell me?" Hope asked hesitantly.

"Are you seriously asking me how your Dad and I got together?"

Hope nodded.

" _That_ is a conversation we need to have with your Dad here."

"Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that I only know half the story, and if I get it wrong he'll get sulky."

In truth, she just  _really_  didn't want to tell it, considering that the two largest turning points in the relationship involved rough sex in either a forest or an in-home gym.

"All right, then. Let's go," Hope said, giggling a little, before getting up and walking determinately out the door. Caroline sighed, blowing on the smoking sage to put the fire out before following. She pulled out her phone to text Klaus on the way.

_Hope wants to know how we fell in love. She's coming down now._

Her phone beeped with a response almost immediately.  _Excellent. That happens to be my favorite story, didn't you know?_

Caroline glared at her phone for a moment before answering.  _I'm pretty sure she thinks you're a fluffy bunny. I don't think she's ever seen you kill a mosquito, let alone sacrifice teenagers or brutally murder hoards of innocent people._

There was a longer time between texts before the response came.  _Well, I suppose she has to know sometime._

She rolled her eyes and then looked down as a second text arrived.  _Just interrupt me if I go overboard._

* * *

"Dad?" Hope called from the foyer.

"He's in the library," Klaus heard Caroline tell her.

Klaus was settled on one of the squishy couches with a book. He scooted over so that Caroline could sit next to him, putting an arm over her so that she could snuggle into his side, while Hope sat on the couch across from them and made a disgusted face at their show of affection.

Hope didn't beat around the bush. "How did you and Mum get together? She won't tell me without you."

"She couldn't help it, I'm irresistible," Klaus said, smirking, and then flinched when Caroline elbowed him in the side and gave him a warning look.

"No, seriously, tell me."

"Well, what do you want to know?" Klaus asked, trying to get a feel for how in-depth Hope wanted the story to be.

"Mum said you took her to school dances."

"Did I?" He asked, looking at Caroline, "I didn't think I officially took you to any events besides that pageant."

"Miss Mystic Falls," Caroline corrected him, "And you took me to the ball at the mansion."

"That wasn't a school event."

"I danced with you at the twenties dance," She reminded him.

He laughed. "Not by choice. I recall having a rather heated confrontation."

"We had a spat, I got over it," She teased.

"What did you fight about?" Hope asked.

"I was about to leave for awhile, and I wanted to tell your mother to come with me, and when she refused—"

"He threw a tantrum," Caroline said, interrupting him.

"What else happened?"

Caroline and Klaus shared a long look before Klaus sighed. "Well, we should start at the beginning, I suppose. What do you know already?"

"I know that Mum was a cheerleader and she hated you, and you saved her life a bunch of times," Hope started.

Caroline snorted and muttered, "Which wouldn't have needed to happen if he hadn't put my life in danger in the first place."

"Ouch, love, that hurts," Klaus said, putting a hand over his heart and adopting a wounded look. She just rolled her eyes.

"And I know that you're not my biological Mum, and that Dad locked you up with me and Aunt Bekah for like, six months in a house in Portland when I was born, and that's when you actually officially got together."

"I wouldn't say 'locked up' so much as 'hid her away for her own safety'," Klaus said, making Caroline scoff.

"I think that's it, though," Hope finished, looking at Klaus and Caroline expectantly.

"Well…" Caroline began uncertainly, "I guess the start was when you broke your hybrid curse?"

Klaus nodded. "That's as good a place to start as any, I suppose. What do you know about how my siblings and I were created as vampires?"

"That Mikael and Esther wanted you and Uncle 'Lijah, Uncle Kol, and Aunt Bekah to be immortal, and so Esther made a spell where you drank the blood of someone that looked like Mum's friend Elena, and then Mikael killed all of you and you woke up as vampires, and you're the first ones, and you can't die," Hope recited.

Close enough.

"Right. When your uncles and Bekah and I transitioned, I accidentally killed someone, which triggered my werewolf gene. So, Esther put a curse on me to lock up my werewolf side and make it dormant so that I was only a vampire. In order to break the curse I had to sacrifice your Mum's friend Elena, a vampire, and a werewolf."

Hope studied him for a moment. "Sacrifice people? Like, kill them?"

He nodded uncertainly.

"But Elena's still alive, so how did you break it?"

"Aunt Bonnie saved her," Caroline said quickly, clearly not wanting to have Klaus get into the details of the whole catastrophe.

"Right. Well, Caroline was seeing a werewolf—Tyler—at the time, and he became my first successful hybrid. I wanted to test the sire bond, and at the time I had never met your Mum and just knew that Tyler had a vampire girlfriend. So, I ordered him to bite her."

"You…You ordered a werewolf to bite Mum? But that could've  _killed_ her," Hope said, confused and a little angry.

Klaus shrugged. "At the time I didn't know her. In addition, your Grandmother is the sheriff in Mystic Falls, and I wanted an alliance. Because my blood was the only cure to a werewolf bite, I decided to withhold it unless she joined my side," He said, trying to sound as clinical as possible.

Hope looked horrified. "What if Grandmother had said no?"

Caroline and Klaus looked at each other. "I wouldn't have gotten the blood," Caroline said gently.

Hope swallowed, seeming to want to get the whole story before she freaked out. "Okay. So what happened next?"

"I went to her room and your Mum just glared at me and then asked me if I was going to kill her."

"And?"

"And he expressed his sincere disbelief that I would expect a mass-murderer who attempted to sacrifice my best friend to kill me when it was my birthday, and then informed me that it was nothing personal and I was just collateral damage." Caroline said dryly.

"Mass-murderer …?" Hope said slowly.

Klaus and Caroline winced as one. "Either which way, she called me old and told me that she didn't want to die, and I said some  _very_  romantic things—" Caroline snorted, and he gave her a completely unapologetic grin before continuing, "—and then I healed her and wished her a happy birthday."

"And then he creepily snuck in my room during the night and left me a diamond bracelet as a birthday present."

Klaus grinned. "Her boyfriend had given her an incredibly ugly charm bracelet and I wanted to show her what she was missing," He whispered to Hope conspiratorially.

Hope's lips twitched, but she didn't laugh.

"And so then Esther was trying to kill me and Bekah and your uncles, and she held a huge ball for it, and I invited Caroline because I was curious."

"And?"

Caroline shrugged. "And I went, and then I yelled at him because he was being an idiot."

"And then all her little friends were constantly trying to kill me, and they figured out that I was fond of your Mum, so they kept sending her to distract me from all their little plots."

"Did it work?" Hope asked.

"Nope, I knew that any time she was talking to me it was because her friends were up to something."

"Then why did you let her do it?"

"It was the only way I could talk to her," Klaus said, a little sadly.

In truth, Caroline's friends would have all been dead very early on if they hadn't started using Caroline as a distraction. He still couldn't believe that it had been Damon's idea.

"Okay, and then what?"

"And then I had a dalliance with your biological mother Hayley, and I had business in New Orleans, so I left."

"But he came back for my high school graduation," Caroline added, "Because there were some witches trying to kill me—well, I guess you said you were on your way anyway—and he saved me and Elena and your Aunt Bonnie…After he saved us he told me that he wanted to be my last love."

"And I bought her a minifridge, which I think is what really did it," He added, grinning at his daughter.

Caroline elbowed him in the side, rolling her eyes and suppressing a laugh, but Hope looked surprised.

"That's it?" Hope asked, a little confused.

"What's it?"

"That's how you got together? Dad said nice things and bought you a  _minifridge_?"

"It's not as though it happened just like that. It took two years of incredibly hard work and dedication to get her to give me a chance, and that's not including the hours I spent sitting in my room thinking of nice things to say," Klaus said, winking at Caroline.

Caroline blushed slightly at the reference to their rough sort-of make-up-sex in the gym of the safehouse.

"Why are you blushing, Mum?" Hope asked suspiciously.

"Why did you want to know all of this anyway, love?" Klaus deflected.

Caroline sent him a thankful look, and he squeezed her waist lightly.

"No reason," Hope said immediately.

Klaus frowned, but Caroline squeezed his knee softly, shooting him a "don't ask, I'll tell you later" look.

"But Dad, I mean, I get the sacrifice for breaking your curse thing, sort of, but why did Mum call you a mass murderer?"

Caroline and Klaus immediately went silent, and Caroline squeezed Klaus's hand. "Well," He said slowly, "I've been alive a thousand years, and I'm an Original vampire."

How does one tell their fourteen-year-old daughter that they've killed a huge amount of people simply for existing?

"How many people have you killed?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Like, you don't know because the number is too high?"

Klaus winced.

"I mean, I get that you're a vampire Dad, but you don't have to kill when you feed, Mum told me that."

"That's true," Klaus said slowly, "But I never bothered keeping the humans alive."

He mentally kicked himself as soon as the words came out of his mouth, realizing how callous they sounded.

Hope had a panicked look on her face and was breathing a little erratically. "You rule the city, but you won that in a fight right? Did you kill the people who were here before? Is that why I have bodyguards all the time? Because you killed people and you're worried that they might take me?"

"Partly," Klaus admitted, "The other part is that I'm actually very powerful, and people could use you as leverage in the event that they wanted something."

Hope seemed to ignore his explanation. "So, when you did this sacrifice, how did you kill them?"

"I drained them," Klaus said quietly.

"Who did you sacrifice? Were they criminals?" Hope asked, clearly grasping at straws trying to find  _some_ redeeming quality in the action.

"No, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," He said, giving Caroline, who was looking a little nervous at Hope's reaction, a reassuring squeeze.

"Do you regret it?" She asked, looking a little bit lost.

He heard Caroline's sharp intake of breath next to him, and he honestly felt like he was facing the firing squad. The good thing was that Caroline knew exactly how he was and had forgiven him long ago. If she knew him even half as well as he thought she did she'd already know his answer.

"No, sweetheart. I don't."

Hope's eyes filled with tears. "Daddy…You... _what?_ When—When was the last time you killed someone?"

He remained silent, knowing that letting her assume when it had been was better than "two hours ago when I caught wind of a revenge plot." But then Hope turned to Caroline and Klaus grimaced at what he knew was about to happen. Though Caroline had come to terms with her own actions, it didn't mean that she was entirely comfortable with them, and as Hope's desperate eyes landed on her Klaus could feel her shrink back into him. He rubbed her hip lightly trying to be reassuring.

"Mum, have you killed people?" Hope asked quietly.

"Yes," Caroline said quietly.

"Do you regret it?"

"Some of them."

Hope was silent for a moment, but then swallowed hard and looked up at them, unable to keep the accusation out of her gaze. "I'm going to do some homework."

"Okay," Caroline said weakly.

"That went well," Klaus said dryly once Hope was out of the room.

"She hates us," Caroline said, sighing.

"I don't think so. I think she's just confused."

Caroline bit her lip. "If you say so."

Caroline's phone vibrated with a text from Bonnie.

_Is there a reason that Hope is calling with questions about why you killed people?_

Caroline winced.

_She just figured out that Klaus isn't a teddy bear, and I think she's trying to figure out if we're terrible people._

She could almost hear Bonnie's exasperated sigh.

_Well, I'm going to be honest, you know me._

_Just do me a favor and don't make Klaus sound worse than he is, okay, Bon?_

_Yep._

"Bonnie says that Hope's calling her, and she'll give Hope an objective view."

Klaus snorted. "So in other words my daughter will think I'm Satan."

Caroline sighed. "Hopefully not."

Klaus pulled Caroline a little bit closer to him so that she was practically in his lap.

"So, disregarding the murder talk, what was that all about, anyway?"

"I can't tell you. I promised to keep it a secret."

"So she likes a boy, then?" Klaus said, dryly.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Caroline asked, the picture of innocence.

"The sudden inquiries about how you could tell that I was in love with you combined with the insistence she had about talking to you about whatever was bothering her rather than me was my first clue."

"Well, for the record, I didn't say a single thing to you."

"So, what's his name?" Klaus asked, way too casually.

Caroline laughed. "Why are you asking? So that his dead body will turn up on his parents' doorstep tomorrow with his intestines ripped out? I feel like at this point that would be a dead giveaway of your murderous tendencies."

Klaus stared at the ceiling, trying to force an innocent look on his face that wasn't quite working because of the evil smile creeping through it, "Never even crossed my mind, love."

"Uh-huh. Sure."


	6. Meet The Family

"Meet the Family" - January 16th, 2033 - Age 20

* * *

 

"You'll be fine, they're going to love you," Hope insisted, squeezing Danny's hand.

"Hope, when you said I'd meet your family, I thought you meant your parents, not like, your  _family_."

"Look, it's just my Dad's side of the family. I know it seems scary, but it'll be fine."

Daniel nodded looking a little bit sick, but then seemed to gather himself and put on a brave face. "All right, so can I go over this again real quick to make sure I have everything down?"

Hope nodded.

"Okay, so, first there's your Mom and Dad, Caroline and Klaus. I should try not to get cornered by your Dad into a conversation with just the two of us, but if I do be super polite. Your Mum isn't as fussy."

"Right, and what should you talk about if you run out of things to say with my Dad?"

"Tell him I'm an art major."

"Right. Good. And the rest?"

"Two aunts, three uncles. Aunt Rebekah and her husband Matt, Uncle Kol and his girlfriend Aunt Bonnie, who was your Mum's childhood friend, Uncle Marcellus, who is single, and your cousin Davina, and your Uncle Elijah, who is single."

"Right. Look, it'll be fine. Just be honest—I swear my Aunt Bonnie can smell lies—and be nice. And don't take the bait that my Dad and Uncle Kol will throw out."

"Yeah, no pressure or anything," Danny said dryly.

Theo pulled up to the Mikaelson Mansion, and immediately came around to the back door to open it for them. Danny went out first and then offered his hand to Hope, which she took, and they walked up the path, Hope holding on to her skirts so that they wouldn't trail on the ground.

"Oh, and Ian will announce us as we enter because my Dad is trying to intimidate you with formal protocol for royalty. Just roll with it," She said casually, and Danny gave her a disbelieving look.

"Is that why I had to wear a tux?" He mumbled.

"Yep. And also why I have to wear this incredibly unnecessary ball gown."

While he knew of the supernatural world, he didn't quite know what he was getting into with Hope's family. She had decided to spring this little tidbit of information (that her family was motherfucking royalty) on him at the last second so that he wouldn't have time to stress about it. She hoped it worked.

Hope pasted a smile on her face and knocked. The door opened to reveal Ian, who was wearing a suit, and he held the door for them. She started towards the dining room, but Ian put a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, kiddo. Your Dad'll have my heart out of my chest if I let you walk in there without your tiara."

"Seriously, do I have to?"

"Yep, just give me a sec, okay?"

"He's known me since I was a baby," Hope said quietly to Danny, who nodded.

Ian came back within a minute and Hope obligingly turned around, her arms crossed over her chest sullenly as he settled the tiara on her hair.

"I hate this, it always feels weird, and I always end up touching my hair and messing it up."

Ian put his hands up in a surrender gesture. "Hey, not my decision Princess," He said, the title now more of a nickname or term of endearment than a formal name, "Take it up with your Dad."

Hope scowled.

"Ready?" Ian asked, and Hope could tell that it took Danny a moment to realize that Ian was talking to him.

Danny nodded, still looking a little bit shell-shocked (although, really, Hope couldn't blame him), and they walked across the foyer. Hope held out her arm to stop Danny from getting too near the doorway to the formal dining room and waited for Ian to announce them.

"Her Royal Highness, Princess Hope Mikaelson and her Suitor," He boomed in a completely serious voice, but Hope could see that he was trying not to break down in laughter. Hope poked Ian hard in the shoulder before she put her arm in Danny's and gently pressed him forward into the formal dining room.

Her extended family were all standing at the table, dressed in suits and ball gowns, but as she expected her parents were absent. Rebekah waved them over, a smirk on her face, and Hope saw that she was seated in-between Rebekah and where her Mum would sit, while Danny was across from her between Elijah and Bonnie.

Danny seemed to realize where he was seated, as the only other un-filled seats were at the head of the table and to the right of it, so he stood behind his chair.

"Don't worry, this is just Klaus trying to scare the bejeezus out of you. Everyone else wants you to do well, including Care. Just follow our lead and we'll step in and rescue you if you need it," Bonnie whispered, a small smile on her face.

Danny nodded, looking a little bit less terrified.

"Speak for yourself, darling," Kol said, giving Danny an impish grin.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Okay, everyone here wants you to do well except this idiot who I will try to keep in line."

Hope resisted the urge to snicker. Keeping Uncle Kol "in line" was basically a full-time job. She did not envy her aunt.

"His Majesty, the King Niklaus Mikaelson, and his consort, Her Majesty, the Queen Caroline."

Hope saw her Mum make a face while her Dad wasn't paying attention, but she immediately pasted on a pageant smile when her Dad looked at her to see what Hope was giggling about.

Klaus escorted Caroline to her seat and pulled out her chair. When Caroline sat, everyone else did too.

Almost immediately, the first course was silently set in front of them—a cold split pea soup with bacon and cream—and Hope gave Danny a warning look before he touched his silverware. He waited until Caroline had picked up her spoon, and Hope gave an inward sigh of relief.

"So, how are you enjoying Tulane, Daniel?" Caroline asked kindly, sipping a bit of soup.

"Um, it's really great. I'm enjoying the classes a lot."

"What are you majoring in?"

"Art history, actually."

Both Kol and Klaus immediately looked thrilled in a rather evil way.

"You know, I very much enjoy art history," Klaus said casually.

"Hope mentioned that," Danny said, "Um, sir," he added at Klaus's raised eyebrow.

"What art history classes are you taking this semester?"

"I'm taking Early Twentieth Century European Modernism and Romanesque & Gothic Art."

"The late Medieval period was one of my favorite chapters of art history," Klaus said, "Do you enjoy it?"

"I guess. I'm actually a lot more inspired by Surrealism."

Klaus frowned, giving Danny an assessing look.

"Do you do studio art as well?" Bonnie jumped in smoothly.

"Um, yeah, actually. I like sculpting a lot."

"Do you begin every sentence with 'um'?" Kol asked slyly, coughing slightly when Bonnie elbowed him in the side.

"Only when I'm nervous," Danny said, smiling shyly.

"There's no need to be nervous, David. We're just trying to get to know you," Klaus said innocently, taking a sip of his soup.

"Daniel," Hope corrected.

Klaus shrugged.

"So, where did you grow up?" Rebekah asked.

"Atlanta, Georgia."

"Did you like it there?"

"Yeah. I mean, it was okay."

"What do your parents do?" Elijah asked.

"My Mom is an lawyer and my Dad is a statistician. He works with a newspaper in the sports section."

"Really?" Kol asked, looking positively gleeful, "What teams do you follow?"

Danny shrugged. "My mom's from northern California, so she's a Niners and Giants fan, and that kind of got passed down to me."

"Did you play any sports in school?" Matt asked kindly.

"I played football, actually."

"So did I, what position?"

"Left tackle."

"Were you good?" Kol asked.

Danny shrugged. "I mean, our team wasn't awesome or anything, but we did pretty well."

Kol studied him for a moment, but before he could speak again Elijah cut in. "Your Mother is an lawyer?"

"Yep."

"What kind of law does she practice?"

"She's a criminal defense lawyer."

"Does she enjoy that?"

"I don't know, I mean, I guess…"

"Well, my love of my life, my sun, my moon, my everything right here, Bonnie, is a lawyer too," Kol said with an overly emphasized lovesick look in Bonnie's direction.

She gave him a fondly exasperated look at his dramatics.

"Keep your disgustingly affectionate ways off of the dinner table, would you Kol?" Rebekah said, wrinkling her nose.

"What kind of law do you practice?" Danny asked.

"I'm a corporate lawyer."

"This isn't about Bonnie, this is about you, Dean—"

"Daniel," Hope corrected again.

"Oh, my mistake. What do you enjoy doing outside of school?" Klaus asked.

"Well, as I said, I like art. Um, I like to read. I like cooking a lot, but I'm not very good at it."

"Are you not fully confident in your abilities?" Kol asked, before wincing, "Hey now, darling, I'm not all that positive what the uses of elbows are supposed to be, but I know they're not supposed to be used for stabbing me in my abdomen because you don't like my completely legitimate questions."

Bonnie just pinched the bridge of her nose and then took a sip of her soup.

"What do you like to read?" Elijah asked.

Hope inwardly groaned. She knew that this would be an inquisition, but she still wasn't happy about it. She shot her Mom a  _help him_  look, and Caroline gave her a small smile.

When the pea soup was cleared and the arugula salad was served, Caroline used the lull in the conversation to cut in and take the focus off of Danny.

"Bonnie, how's the new location working out?"

"Really well, actually. I'm glad I got to it before anyone else did. It's the perfect place for my practice. I'm getting a lot more clients now because it's so much more convenient."

"Even if you hadn't moved you'd have lots of clients, darling. You're the best at what you do," Kol said affectionately.

Bonnie gave him an exasperated look, but didn't reprimand him. She seemed to have adopted what Caroline would call a "pick your battles mentality."

The arugula salad was soon cleared and was replaced by grilled hanger steak with a Gorgonzola cabernet demi-glace, scalloped potatoes, and sautéed spinach.

"So, Daniel, what do you plan to do with your degree when you graduate Tulane?" Elijah asked, using the pause in conversation to his advantage to restart the questioning session.

"I don't know yet."

"Well, art isn't generally the most secure field of study."

"Well, I have a minor in economics as well."

"Do you? Arts  _and_ business? That must be difficult. I never would have expected that." Marcel said, flashing Danny a pearly smile.

Hope nearly groaned at the perfect backhanded compliment. As a true Southerner, Marcel was excellent at those, and Hope had never hated his talents in that area as much as she did right now.

Danny either seemed to have missed it or decided to ignore it. He shrugged. "It's going to make me more marketable in the workforce. I mean, in a perfect world I'd open my own gallery eventually, but I don't think that will ever happen. That kind of thing is really one in a million, no matter how qualified you are."

"Does that mean you don't have the confidence that you can achieve your goals?" Klaus asked.

Danny looked slightly uncomfortable and shot Hope a desperate look. Hope saw her Dad smirk at Elijah, clearly thinking he'd won.

"Well, he was thinking of working at one of the art galleries near here to get some experience, right Danny?"

"Yeah, actually. I'm really excited about it."

"So, Dylan."

"Dad, it's Daniel," Hope said harshly.

"I'm so sorry, love, my mistake."

"Yes, sir?"

"What are your intentions with my daughter?"

"That escalated quickly," Kol muttered. Bonnie whacked him in the arm.

"Niklaus," Caroline reprimanded, whacking him on the arm.

Hope smirked. When Mum brought out the full name, he was in trouble. He knew it too, and gave her a reproachful look. "It was just a question, love."

"To make her happy…?"

"Is that a question or an answer?" Klaus asked.

Caroline massaged her temples.

"An answer, sir."

"And how will you go about that?"

This seemed to stump Danny, but Hope knew better than to intervene at this point.

"By taking care of her."

Hope squeezed her eyes together.  _Wrong answer._

"Are you implying that my daughter can't take care of herself?" Klaus asked in a deceptively kind voice.

"No. Of course not."

"Then what did you mean by that?"

_Oh, he's so screwed._

"I think that we all need someone to take care of us no matter how strong we are," Danny said earnestly.

Caroline smiled brilliantly and squeezed Klaus's hand. "I think so, too," She said.

Hope smirked into her bite of steak.

Danny clearly had her Mum's stamp of approval, which meant that her Dad had to go along with it.

"Would you turn for her?"

Okay, maybe not without a fight.

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I'll have to think about that."

"Really?" Klaus said lightly.

"We're really young. I think it's important to not make that kind of decision yet."

"So you don't see your relationship with Hope lasting?"

"That's not what I meant—"

"Then what did you mean?"

"Oh, leave him alone, Nik," Rebekah said crossly, "Matt only decided to turn three years ago, and we'd been together for sixteen years before that. Daniel doesn't have to decide right now."

"I don't think that Hope should be considering a person that might not have her best interests at heart. If he's eventually going to leave her because he won't turn, then that will break her heart," Klaus argued.

"Nik, they're only twenty," Rebekah said gently.

"Caroline was nineteen when she moved in."

"I was already turned though," Caroline said quietly, squeezing his hand.

"Look, Mr. Mikaelson. I love Hope, and that's why I don't know yet. Because I love her, I want to give how this relationship will work some serious thought. She deserves that." Danny said quietly, shooting her a warm glance.

The table was silent, and Hope felt herself blush slightly.

"Very well worded," Elijah said quietly, "I think that you may have potential."

 _And mood ruined_ , Hope thought, rolling her eyes.

The staff cleared their plates and brought out individual chocolate mousses, and Caroline managed to steer the conversation away from Hope and Danny, which Hope was grateful for. She would be glad when the night was over.

"Davina, how's everything going? We haven't seen you around lately."

Davina shrugged. "I've been busy," She said vaguely, "But actually Bonnie, I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with something this week."

"Something witchy?" Kol asked, grinning, "Because Bonnie is  _very_ talented. Of course, not just as a witch, but that's not relevant."

"Kol!" Rebekah and Bonnie yelled at the same time.

"What, Bekah? I was just paying my beautiful fiancée a compliment."

You could have heard a pin drop.

"Fiancée?" Caroline asked excitedly, her eyes wide.

Bonnie glared at Kol and then pasted on a weak smile. "Surprise?" She said lamely.

"Congratulations!" Caroline squealed, then frowned, "Where's your ring? Did you not get her a ring Kol?"

"I didn't want to steal Hope's thunder," Bonnie muttered, transferring the ring to the correct finger from her other hand.

"Please, steal away," Hope said faintly.

Aunt Bonnie was getting married.

_Married._

Well, actually, the surprising thing was that Uncle  _Kol_ was getting married. Her Mum and Dad weren't married yet, and if he had to pin one of her relatives down as the first ones to deal with the whole business (besides Aunt Bekah), it would have been them. And if she had to pick the one least likely, it would have been Uncle Kol.

Caroline squeezed Klaus's hand excitedly. "Did you hear that, Klaus, they're getting  _married_. That's so exciting! You have to let me help you plan it, Bon. Oh my gosh, that's great."

Klaus looked faintly ill at Caroline's excitement, and Hope smirked.

_Thank you to whatever deity decided to bless Uncle Kol with his inability to keep a secret and his sense of dramatics._

* * *

"I didn't like him."

Caroline snorted, settling the dress into its garment bag and pulling on a tank top and sleep shorts. She was incredibly happy to be out of the stuffy dress. As much as she liked formal dinners, she felt that Klaus went a bit overboard with the whole thing.

Like,  _really_ overboard.

"You don't like anyone."

"I like you," He said, "And Hope, and to some extent my siblings."

Caroline laughed. "To some extent, hmm?"

He shrugged.

"I'm so excited for Bonnie, though. I know she's wanted this for awhile."

"Has she?"

Caroline nodded enthusiastically. "I can't wait to start planning it."

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful," Klaus said, sounding genuine.

Caroline shot him a brilliant smile.

He kissed her softly. "I have to take care of some things before we retire for the night. I'll be back soon."

"All right. Should I wait up?"

He shrugged. It shouldn't take more than an hour, but if you're tired you should sleep."

She nodded. "I need to work on some things anyway. I'll see you soon."

He left, and she sat down on the bed with her laptop. The Rosenbaums were  _very_ intent on their daughter's Bat Mitzvah being perfect, and they seemed to e-mail her at all hours of the day and expect a response almost immediately. Frankly, Caroline couldn't understand why. The planning was going smoothly besides them changing their mind about everything every five seconds. She needed to have the flowers ordered by the next Friday, and the mother had changed her mind. Again.

Caroline smiled as she thought of the twelve-year-old daughter, who didn't seem to care about anything involving the party and just wanted the whole thing to be over with.

She worked until she heard Klaus come back, and she put her laptop on the night side table as he entered the room. He undressed down to his boxers and laid next to her, pulling her into his chest.

They were silent for awhile, and Caroline had nearly fallen asleep when he spoke.

"Do you want to get married?"

Caroline turned to face him.

"If that's your proposal, it sucked."

He laughed.

"Look, I know you're not a huge fan of marriage, and I know that you love me. I don't need a piece of paper for that. If you don't want to, we don't have to," Caroline said.

He sighed. "That wasn't my question. My question was whether  _you_ want to get married."

She bit her lip. "Hope's friends have called me Mrs. Mikaelson forever anyway."

He smiled. "I know," He said smugly.

She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I could go either way. It depends on you," He said quietly.

He nodded slowly.

"I'll think about it."

"Well, considering your track record with that phrase, that usually means yes."

She snorted. "I guess it usually does. Not always, though."

He pulled her closer to him.

"Good night, Klaus."

He laughed. "Done with the conversation already?"

"I told you I'd think about it."

He nodded. "Good night, love."

 


	7. Christmas

"Christmas" – December 25th, 2019 – Age 7

* * *

 

Whoever said that vampires couldn't get cold clearly had no idea what they were talking about. It was two in the morning, and no matter how closely she snuggled into Klaus her feet still felt like ice cubes. She carefully edged her feet to touch Klaus's hoping to make them warmer, but he flinched and opened his eyes.

She jutted out her bottom lip at his playful glare. "My feet are cold."

"So I see."

"Can you turn on the heater?"

"But I'm  _not_  cold. Just put on some warmer leggings and socks, love."

She glared at him. "You are not seriously telling me to put more clothes on."

He seemed to consider the dilemma for the moment: Get up and turn the heater on, or make Caroline dress in more than his Henley and a pair of boy-shorts. "Why can't  _you_  turn the heater on?"

She just stared at him for a moment, and he gave a dramatic sigh and pushed the covers off, speeding to the other room to turn the heater on. She immediately grabbed his side of the blankets and nestled into them, grinning at him unrepentantly when he got back.

"What? You said you weren't cold."

"Yes, because I had  _blankets,_ " He said, getting into bed beside her and attempting to wrestle the blankets out of her grip without hurting her by accident. She sighed and let go, and he pulled her against him, nuzzling into her neck.

Contrary to her initial impression, Klaus  _was_ a cuddler. However, he refused any displays of affection outside their bedroom or when they were home alone besides a chaste kiss on the cheek or an arm around her waist. She couldn't decide whether it was because of his upbringing in the tenth century when such displays were uncommon and considered graphic, or whether it was because he didn't want to show weakness.

She didn't particularly care. She knew he loved her, and she wasn't about to throw an insecure fit because he wouldn't make out with her in public (not that she'd want to anyway, she hadn't explored any exhibitionist fantasies but she had a feeling that she personally didn't have any).

"I know something that would make you warmer," He breathed in her ear, making her shiver.

She felt him smile against her neck and then his warm lips moved up to nibble on her ear.

"That is literally the most cliché pick up line I have ever heard in my entire life."

He shrugged. "Did it work?'

She twisted around to face him. "I think I need a little more convincing."

He kissed her softly, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. She gently pushed him over to straddle him, and kissed him a little bit more passionately.

He let his palms rest on her bum, and she rolled her hips over the bulge in his boxers, smirking when he swore softly and grinded into her. She pulled the borrowed Henley off and attached her lips to the juncture of his neck and shoulder, her nipples rubbing pleasurably against the skin of his abdomen. He hooked a finger around the strip of cloth covering her core and easily tore it off before slipping a finger into her.

She moaned into his neck, her hot breath on his sensitive skin making him shiver slightly. He added another finger and began pumping them in and out, rubbing her clit with his thumb. She let out a string of breathy sighs and moans, spreading her legs wider for him. She was close already, and she glared at him when he withdrew his fingers at the last second.

"Tease," She mumbled, grinning slightly. She tugged his wrist up and wrapped her lips around his fingers, sucking lightly and running her tongue over his fingertips. He closed his eyes and groaned, his other hand pressing down on her ass to rub her dripping pussy into his covered erection more firmly, his boxers the only barrier left between them.

She released his fingers and sat up, pulling his boxers down and wrapping her hand around him, rubbing the tip of him with her thumb. He bucked into her hand and she smiled, loving the reactions she got from him.

She positioned him at her entrance and sunk down onto him, both of them moaning at the contact, and she rocked her hips against him. He gripped her hips with his hands, thrusting into her, his eyes fixed on the picture she made. Her eyes were closed with her head thrown back as she rode him; her breasts bouncing slightly with every thrust of his cock into her tight wet heat.

She moaned his name as she came around his cock, riding out her orgasm, and let him flip them over, pressing her to the bed and kissing her roughly while he pounded into her, seeking his own release.

He bared his neck to her in silent question, and she sunk her teeth into him, knowing it was the last push he needed. He loved it when she drank from him. He spilled inside of her, and collapsed on top of her, kissing her softly, sucking his blood off of her lip.

She tangled her fingers in his hair, and smiled brilliantly at him when he pulled back, before sliding out of bed and bending over to grab the discarded Henley from the floor and pulled it on, feeling his eyes on the curve of her ass. She also grabbed some sleep shorts from the dresser in the corner.

"Go put something on," She said.

They had learned as soon as Hope started really walking that they needed to be completely clothed at all times. Though she had never walked in on anything, they'd had more than a few close calls. He pulled on a clean pair of boxers and then pulled Caroline to him again, nuzzling into her hair. She knew that staying up this late would probably end up being a mistake, as Hope was bound to wake them up at the crack of dawn for presents, but she decided that it was worth it.

"Merry Christmas, Klaus."

He gave her a dimpled smile. "Merry Christmas, love."

XXX

Klaus was not a morning person, and he had no intention of becoming one any time soon. It was because of this that he ignored the persistent seven-year-old that had been tapping insistently on his shoulder for the last three minutes.

"Mummy! Daddy! Wake  _up_!"

"What time is it?" Klaus mumbled, blearily opening his eyes to look at his daughter, who was bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet next to their bed.

"Five thirty," Caroline croaked from next to him.

"Go back to bed," He said to Hope before covering his head with a pillow.

"But  _Santa_ came, Daddy!"

He heard Caroline mumble something that sounded like, "Wow, Ian-Santa works fast," and then swung herself out of bed. "We're not going to open presents until Daddy's up, but I'll come down to the living room with you."

She turned to him, rubbing her eyes as she did so. "I'll make coffee, too."

"Thanks," He mumbled, giving her a half-hearted shooing motion and drifting back off to sleep.

When he awoke, he pulled on sweatpants over his boxers and made his way down the stairs. Caroline sat on the living room couch, clutching her coffee and staring unseeingly at the brightly-lit Christmas tree. Hope was sitting on the floor off to the side, her eyes glued to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special that was playing on the television. It had been about an hour since their daughter had dragged Caroline out of bed, and he could tell that Caroline still wasn't nearly awake.

She wordlessly motioned to the kitchen where there was coffee in the pot, and he came back a moment later clutching a steaming mug of it mixed with some blood and settled down next to her, tucking an arm around her waist.

"Can we open presents yet?"

"You can open Santa's, but we're waiting until everyone gets here later to open the rest," Caroline said, yawning.

"Okay," Hope said excitedly, bounding to the stockings and pulling each down and depositing them in the middle of the living room.

Caroline scooted to the floor and pulled hers over, and Klaus reluctantly followed her, draining the last of his coffee. Hope was about to tear open the first of her stocking presents when Caroline shouted, "Wait!" and ran out of the room, coming back a moment later with her cell phone.

She knelt down next to him and loaded the camera app, pointing it at Hope and starting the video.

"Can I open them now?" Hope asked impatiently.

"Yes, love, go ahead."

Hope poured out the contents of her stocking to the floor, revealing a small pile of presents. She pulled the first one to her and tore off the paper impatiently, revealing a chocolate bar, which she set aside. The next three were a sketchbook, drawing pencils, and a watercolor set. Klaus was hoping to be able to spend some more time with her doing art. The last one was a new computer game that she had wanted.

Caroline and Klaus had decided—or, rather, Caroline decided and Klaus went along with it—that in order to prevent Hope being spoiled, she should only get one "big present" per year. So far, the big presents had come from just them, but this year they were doing a combined present within the family for her.

When Hope was done opening her presents, she plopped herself back in front of the television, completely uninterested in whatever her parents had gotten from "Santa."

Caroline had told Ian to just wrap some candy and put it in. She and Klaus were giving each other their actual presents later that night with the rest of the family, and there really wasn't a need for stocking stuffers.

Caroline excused herself to take a shower, and while she was gone he headed to the kitchen and started getting out pots and pans to start on brunch. The rest of the family was due around ten, and he had about two hours to make everything.

He had never been particularly fond of cooking—he didn't technically need to eat human food anyway—and so he often had people cook for him. However, Caroline had been insistent that he give all of his hybrids besides Ian (who lived in his own section of the mansion year-round) the week completely off.

Fortunately for Caroline, though he didn't care for it, he could cook quite well. Caroline wasn't hopeless in the kitchen, but she was very rigid about following recipes. She liked to follow the directions and know whatever she was making would turn out exactly the way it was supposed to. Because of this, cooking could be stressful for her. Her perfectionism tended to take over, and though Klaus knew a thing or two about perfectionism himself, he wasn't that set on it.

He also knew that Caroline loved watching him cook. He wasn't quite sure why, to be honest, but the way that she watched him while he did it made it worth it.

By now, Klaus had learned how to make everything come out around the same time. He started with the scones, making the dough and sticking it in the freezer for half an hour while he worked on the spicy marmalade for the sausage. He grinned as he watched Caroline walk in and start watching him out of the corner of his eye, and she stuck her tongue out at him when she caught him smirking.

"Don't you have other things to do?"

"Nope," She said, unashamedly watching the muscles of his upper torso ripple as he beat the eggs for the quiche by hand.

Hope came in after the movie was over holding the Sorry! box. She set it on the counter in front of Caroline. "Can you play with me while we wait for Daddy to be done?"

"Sure, sweetie. Let's move to the kitchen table."

XXX

The doorbell rang around nine forty-five, and Caroline pulled it open to see Rebekah on the doorstep clutching Matt's hand. Caroline stood by to let them in, and Matt went to put the bag of presents under the tree. Hope stuck her head out of the kitchen to see who had arrived.

"Auntie Bekah!"

Rebekah gathered Hope into a hug. "How are you doing today?" Rebekah asked, bending down to eye-level.

"I  _love_ Christmas!" Hope said loudly, jumping up and down.

Rebekah laughed, and Matt got back from putting the presents away and gave Hope a hug as well.

"Something smells good," He said, wandering towards the kitchen.

Rebekah and Caroline exchanged knowing looks. Matt hadn't decided whether he wanted to turn yet, and as both women knew, the way to a (human) man's heart was through his stomach.

They all followed him in to see Matt helping himself to coffee.

"Klaus."

"Quarterback."

Matt grinned.

"Can I do anything to help?" He asked.

"Bacon," Klaus said simply, pressing the box into Matt's hands and returning to the crepes.

Matt nodded and set the pan on the stove to heat up, turning to wash his hands at the sink.

"Auntie Bekah, will you come watch Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer with me?"

"I wish your grandmother had gotten run over by a reindeer. It would have made life a  _lot_ easier," He mumbled.

"I second the motion," Rebekah said, smiling slightly.

Hope looked back and forth between her Dad and Aunt. "What?"

"Nothing," Caroline and Matt said together.

Hope frowned and grabbed Rebekah's hand, pulling her to the living room. The doorbell rang and Caroline went to answer it. Bonnie stood on the doorstep nervously.

"Hey, Bon! I'm glad you could come this year!"

Bonnie smiled shyly. "Me too."

Caroline stood back to let her in, assessing her friend with a critical eye. Bonnie had lost an unhealthy amount of weight. She'd had a hard year. Jeremy had decided that he never wanted to leave the comfort of the anti-magic bubble over Mystic Falls, and Bonnie didn't want to give her magic up again. She told Jeremy that he could choose between Mystic Falls and her.

And he chose wrong.

"C'mon, let's get you some food," Caroline said brightly.

She dragged Bonnie into the kitchen where Matt and Klaus were cooking civilly (and silently). Matt pulled Bonnie in for a one-armed hug.

Elijah and Marcel both arrived in short order, Marcel mumbling something about Davina being busy and that she wished she could have come. Kol was the last to arrive, and he threw a squealing Hope in the air and then gave her a piggy-back ride to the dining room table where everyone else sat. The clink of knives and forks and the chatter of conversation dominated the next hour and a half. When they were all done, Matt and Rebekah volunteered to wash up.

Caroline resolved to keep Hope  _far_ away from the kitchen until the two of them came out.

Hope spent the next half hour trying to use her adorable seven-year-old ways to convince them all to play a game, and when they all were wrangled into it she scampered off and came back with Pictionary.

They played in teams of two, and it was decided that since all of the Original siblings had known each other for a thousand years, none of them should be allowed on the same team. There were an odd number of people, and so Marcel volunteered to sit out and play timekeeper.

They were just about to decide who teamed up with who when Hope spoke up.

"I want Daddy."

"Smart girl," Kol muttered, looking at Klaus, who was grinning and flipping a pencil around in his fingers.

"Team Barbie," Caroline said teasingly, bumping fists with Rebekah.

"How about Matt pairs up with Elijah?" Rebekah suggested, knowing that everyone heard the other meaning of the idea which was, "At least Bonnie can give Kol an aneurism if he gets out of hand."

"Looks like you're with me, darling."

"Joy," Bonnie mumbled, scooting over to sit next to him.

Klaus drew first and gave his daughter a dimpled smile before grabbing the paper and drawing when Marcel started.

Hope glanced at the outlines on the paper. "Um. Butterfly? Flower? Windmill?"

Klaus nodded and dropped the pencil. "Point for us, love."

Bonnie was next, and she patiently waited for Marcel to flip the timer and started to draw.

A few rounds passed without any issue until Rebekah and Caroline were drawing. Caroline and Rebekah had played a similar two-player version of the game before, and Caroline knew how Rebekah operated. Rebekah was incredibly good at guessing. She could figure out what Caroline was trying to get across almost the instant it was even remotely recognizable. Unfortunately, she drew quite slowly, and spent a lot of time erasing marks and trying to perfect whatever it was.

Because of this, Caroline had learned to just throw out random words that could be anything remotely close to whatever Rebekah was drawing. This time, that strategy didn't work, and Rebekah wrinkled her nose at the end.

"It was duck. Sorry, Care."

"It's okay."

Klaus and Hope went next, and Hope looked at her card and quickly sketched what was an incredibly accurate wolf for a seven-year-old, causing Klaus to grin as he guessed it. Instead of discarding the paper scrap, she pressed it into his hand. "That was really well done, love."

"Thanks!"

Kol drew next, and Bonnie frowned as he sketched what was clearly the earth and another circle next to it where he drew two stick figures. He added a hat to one of them with a smiley face and long hair, and then put an angry frown on the other one, and then drew a pentagram star over their heads. She eyed it for a few seconds as Kol added a forest and then something seemed to click in her mind.

"Pocket," Bonnie said, laughing slightly.

"Very good, darling."

This went on until a bit before dinnertime. Earlier in the afternoon Klaus had popped into the kitchen to put the stew on, and he need to grill the vegetables with it. Caroline volunteered to come with him to make the mashed potatoes.

"So," Caroline said, putting the water on to boil, "Do you think she'll like it?"

"I should hope so, love. She's only been asking for one for years."

Caroline laughed.

"But what if she changed her mind?"

Klaus just gave her his best "you've got to be kidding me" look.

"Would it make you feel better if we were to open presents before dinner?"

Caroline nodded. "Yeah, I think so. If only because then she won't rush us through dinner."

Caroline put the potatoes into the pot and then returned to the living room, where everyone was seated. Hope had squished herself in-between Kol and Bonnie, and was excitedly telling them a story.

Kol kept sending Bonnie lingering stares whenever she wasn't looking, and Caroline's lips quirked. Now  _that_ would be a cute couple.

"Time for presents," She announced.

Hope squealed and leapt up from the couch, bounding towards the tree and pulled the closest present with her name on it towards her, while Rebekah pulled out her phone to film.

"Wait, sweetie, there's an order this year."

Caroline grabbed Hope's presents and arranged the six of them in order. Hope frowned, but obligingly pulled the nearest one over, which was from Rebekah and Matt, and unwrapped it while they all watched. She frowned when she pulled out a helmet. She looked at Caroline.

"Keep going," Caroline encouraged.

Marcel and Davina's was a pair of low-heeled ankle boots, and Elijah's was a pair of leggings. Kol had gotten her a light jacket. Bonnie had chipped in for gloves. The last one was a tiny flat package from Caroline and Klaus, and Hope unwrapped it carefully.

It was a photo of a horse.

Her eyes went wide, and she looked at her parents with an almost manically gleeful smile. Klaus's lips twitched at Hope's obvious excitement. She looked from the photo to the gear and then she turned to her Mum.

" _Seriously_?"

Rebekah started laughing and Caroline glared and whacked her on the arm before turning back to her daughter.

"Yes, seriously."

 


	8. Culinary Horizons & Ballet Class

 

"Culinary Horizons" - July 21st, 2020 - Age 8.

* * *

 

"Hope, Daddy and I are going out for the night. Your Uncle Elijah is here, and I want you to behave."

Caroline pulled her head out of Hope's room and turned to Elijah, who was standing in the hall with his hands clasped behind his back. "There's a list of things she needs to do tonight taped to the kitchen counter. Her bedtime is nine, and it's non-negotiable. Don't let her walk all over you," Caroline ordered.

"Of course, Caroline."

Caroline gave him an assessing look. "No. Seriously. I feel like I have to tell everyone this every time Rebekah or Kol babysits. You are the adult, not her."

He nodded solemnly. Caroline started to go in for a hug but seemed to think better of it, and patted him on the shoulder instead. "We'll be back by ten."

Elijah turned to Hope's open door and knocked. He heard her give a faint "come in" and stuck his head in. His eight-year-old niece was sitting calmly on the floor reading.

She looked up. "Hi Uncle Elijah."

"Hello."

She gave him an assessing look. "Come sit with me," she ordered.

Elijah had a funny feeling that this was a test of some sort. Even if it wasn't, he had no intention of sitting on the floor.

"If you wish to read when I am present in the room, then you may come to the library, living room, or another place where there is proper seating. If you would like to have your solitude, you may stay in here by yourself."

"But I want you to sit with me."

_Don't let her walk all over you._

"Well, as I said, I will not. If you require my assistance with something I will be in my study. You are welcome to join me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Fine."

He went to his study, making sure to keep half an ear out for any trouble. A few minutes later, he heard Hope's footsteps approaching and looked up as she entered and plopped down on the leather couch in the corner, lifting her feet up to sit at the coffee table.

"Do not rest your feet on furniture."

She just gave him a disinterested look and returned to her book.

"Hope, remove your feet from the table."

"No."

"I will," he floundered for some sort of parenting technique, and remembered seeing Caroline's reaction to a similar situation, "count to three, and then if you do not comply, I shall make you."

"Go for it," She said boredly.

"One."

She turned a page.

"Two."

She ignored him.

"Three."

At her lack of reaction, he briskly walked over to her and picked her up. She immediately started thrashing in his arms and he lifted her up to rest on his shoulder so that he could pin her legs in place.

"Put me down."

"No. I warned you, and I counted to three, but you forced my hand."

He sped up the stairs and plopped her on her bed. "You will remain here until dinner time."

She pouted. "But I don't want to."

He shrugged elegantly and straightened his cuffs. "This is not a democracy, Hope. This is a dictatorship. I will, however, take any suggestions you have towards your dinner into account."

She glared at him and crossed her arms.

"If you do not wish to inform me of your preferences, that's fine. Just do not be disappointed if you are displeased by the meal."

She remained silent, and he left her room, closing the door behind him. He hoped that this was what Caroline meant by, "Don't let her walk all over you." He felt terrible, but he was trying to model his behavior after Caroline's example. He was determined not to make the same mistakes in caring for her as his siblings.

The entire week of watching his brother sulk due to Caroline being angry because of the candy mishap remained one of his fondest recent memories, as well as something he learned from.

He decided to read the list that Caroline had prepared and walked down the stairs to the kitchen, peeling the neon pink sticky note off of the kitchen counter. He allowed himself a small smile as he read, noting that some of the words were underlined liberally.

_Elijah,_

_Thank you for agreeing to watch her for the night, we really appreciate it. As I most likely told you before I left, her bedtime is at_ _**9 o'clock.** _

_We have fresh broccoli in the fridge, which you should make with dinner. If you feel particularly motivated, you can make cheese sauce with it. If she wants dessert she has to eat all of it. Entrée is up to you, obviously._

_For dessert, she can have one pudding cup or an ice cream sandwich from the freezer._

_Make sure she does her homework. Her math worksheet is due tomorrow, and she has to practice her spelling words. Both of these are in her backpack._

_Homework is also_ _ **not optional,** _ _and must be done_ _ **tonight** _ _no matter what she says._

_After she's done with her homework, she's free to do whatever she wants before bed._

_Thanks again!_

_-Caroline_

He checked the clock, noting that it was nearing five thirty, and started to wash the broccoli. Though he had been told to not give into his niece's demands, he still felt slightly regretful for the way he had treated her, and so he decided to feel—in Caroline's words—"particularly motivated," and go a step further and make cheese fondue for dinner.

He shredded the cheese and coated it with cornstarch before bringing the white wine and lemon juice to a simmer. He hummed as he worked, blanching the broccoli and arranging it on a plate with sliced apples and raw vegetables. He cut up some French bread as well.

Hope came down a few minutes later and sat down at the table. She eyed the fondue curiously before dipping a slice of French bread into it and taking a bite. "This is really good," she said, almost sounding surprised.

"Have you never had fondue before?" He asked.

She shook her head, munching on an apple chunk. He frowned. "What do you usually have for dinner?"

Hope shrugged. "Grilled chicken or some kind of pasta, usually macaroni and cheese. If Dad cooks then we'll have something more complicated, like lasagna."

Elijah pressed his lips together and resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose. Lasagna was  _complicated_? Had his niece really not been exposed to a wide variety of food? Fondue was practically "mainstream,"—as Caroline would say—and he suddenly felt rather irritated on Hope's behalf. He watched as Hope ate everything on her plate, and frowned.

"Would you be agreeable to waiting another hour to have dessert?"

"Depends. Why?"

"I suspect that you have not had chocolate fondue before, is that correct?"

"That's a thing?"

Elijah nodded. "It would be a crime to deprive you of new culinary experiences when I am perfectly capable of providing them."

He heard Caroline's voice in his head lecturing him on the importance of healthy eating and frowned slightly.

"However, you must promise not to inform your mother."

Hope nodded enthusiastically.

An hour or so later, they sat together at the kitchen counter, Elijah quizzing her on her spelling words and giving her a dipping item every time she got one right. He sent her to bed at exactly nine o'clock, trying to curb his guilt at not following Caroline's instructions, and sat in the library with a book, awaiting the return of Caroline and his brother. When he heard them arrive, he met them in the foyer.

"Thank you for doing this, Elijah, I really appreciate it," Caroline said, smiling as Klaus helped her with her coat.

"You are very welcome. I have a proposal."

"Hmm?"

"I would like to have dinner with Hope every Friday at my property just outside the city."

Caroline frowned. "Sure, I guess. As long as she agrees to it."

Elijah smiled slightly. "I'm sure she will."

"I will speak with Theo and arrange for the transportation. Goodnight Elijah," Klaus said pointedly.

Caroline rolled her eyes, and Elijah smirked and let himself out. He would have to go grocery shopping the next day. Perhaps they could try bruschetta, a mushroom agnolotti, and tiramisu? He would have to think about it.

Hope should be able to enjoy exploring her personal tastes while the food was still rich with flavor. As a vampire the taste was suppressed, even if only a small amount, and he was determined to give her the opportunity to try new things while she still could.

* * *

"Ballet Class" - May 10th, 2022 – Age 10

* * *

 

"This is a  _really_ bad idea," Kol heard Caroline say quietly to Klaus in the other room, "I know that we want a vacation, but I would have felt more comfortable waiting for Rebekah and Matt to get back from Spain."

"He'll be fine, love. I think Kol can handle Hope for a week. She's ten and practically immortal, what could possibly go wrong?"

Kol could practically see Caroline's glare in his mind's eye, and he smirked.

"Look, if it ends badly, we'll never let him babysit again, all right? But I'm sure it'll go smoothly. We've let him watch her before for evenings, and he's good with her. She enjoys spending time with him."

"Fine," Caroline said irritably.

As soon as Kol heard her leave the library he walked in. "She doesn't trust me at all, does she?"

"Well, I don't really blame her," Klaus mumbled.

"Do you have no faith in me, big brother?"

Klaus sighed. "To be perfectly honest, I would also have asked Rebekah or Elijah if they had been available. However, I am willing to trust you once. If it goes well, I'll keep that in mind."

"Not that I'm saying that I don't enjoy spending time with Hope, but it's not exactly a privilege to have to put my life on hold and move into your house for a week to look after a ten year old."

"Okay," Caroline said snappishly, walking back into the library. "I left a—"

"Note on the kitchen counter with what she needs to do this week, yes, I know darling."

Caroline glared at him. "Don't fuck up," she said simply, before turning to Klaus, "Let's go. Our flight leaves in a few hours."

Kol smirked slightly as he watched his thousand year old brother get dragged out of the room by a twenty-nine year old woman, and then shut his eyes to listen for his niece. He heard the click of a computer mouse upstairs, and decided to look at Caroline's kitchen list.

Instead of the usual sticky note, he found a color-coded table showing Hope's schedule, and had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. Luckily, Caroline mentioned that Theo would be around to help out in the mornings, because otherwise he would have refused to come. There was no way that he would wake up at seven o'clock in the morning to get Hope ready for school.

He checked his watch, and it was nearly nine. Kol suspected that Caroline had done this on purpose to give him an easy first night, and he walked up to tell Hope to go to bed. She didn't put up much of a fight—which he was rather grateful for—and he turned off the light behind him before falling into bed in the guest room that had been prepared for him.

XXX

Kol pulled up at the curb in front of the school and waited impatiently for Hope to appear. When she emerged, he held down the horn. He saw her spot him and practically sprint over, opening the passenger side door.

"Uncle Kol, don't use your horn like that, you're embarrassing me."

"Sorry, darling," Kol said, not feeling particularly sorry at all.

She glared at him and tugged her seatbelt on. "Are you ready?" He asked.

"Yep."

He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road and began to drive to the ballet studio where Hope had her lesson that day. "How was school?"

"Fine, I guess."

"Anything happen?"

"Not really. I have to make a diorama of an important historical American event, but other than that there is absolutely nothing interesting at all going on."

They drove in silence for the next ten minutes or so until Kol pulled up at the studio. "When should I pick you up?" He asked.

She gave him a disbelieving look. "You have to come in with me."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Mum comes in with me every time. You have to put my hair up and then wait for me on the side."

"You're ten. Can't you go by yourself?"

She gave him an angry look that was so eerily similar to Caroline's that he felt a slight irrational tug of fear in his gut.

"Fine, fine. Let me park."

Hope went ahead to the studio to change into her leotard and tights, shouting to look through her backpack. Kol did so and saw that the ever-prepared Caroline had put a tiny comb, a capped spray bottle, a few bobby pins, and two hair elastics in a little plastic bag in Hope's backpack.

He sighed and walked into the building, waiting by the entrance for Hope to return. When she did so, she dragged him into the studio and stood expectantly in front of the mirrored wall. Kol sighed and opened the bag, looking confusedly at all of the materials for a moment before pulling out the comb. He started to brush Hope's hair, but it was getting hopelessly frizzy, and they both grimaced. "You should have started with the spray bottle," Hope informed him irritably.

"Well, I've never exactly had to do a ten-year-old's hair before, darling."

One of the moms on the waiting bench looked like she was going to laugh, and Kol glared at her. "D'you mind?"

"Would you like some help?" The woman asked, still looking faintly amused despite Kol's death glare.

"Yes," he said shortly, holding out the comb and spray bottle towards her.

The woman came over and spritzed the water on Hope's hair before gently running the comb through it. "I've never seen you here before. Are you her father?"

Kol shook his head furiously causing the woman to smile. "No, no, most definitely not."

"I feel like I should be offended," Hope muttered, causing Kol to grin.

"I'm her uncle. Her father is my brother, Nik."

The woman nodded absently as she carefully twisted Hope's hair tightly and then coiled it around itself to form a bun, and then securing it with bobby pins. "Well, I'm Marie. It's nice to meet you..."

"Kol," he provided, sticking his hand out for a handshake once she had tucked the last of Hope's stray hairs in.

Hope scampered off to join the other girls at the warm-up bar, and Kol sunk down next to Marie on the bench. "So, not to pry, but where's Caroline? Kenley was hoping that we could set up a play-date sometime this week."

Kol had no idea what a 'play-date' was, but decided not to ask and hope that it came up through context. "She and my brother are away this week, so I'm taking care of Hope."

"If she's free on Wednesday, we'd be happy to take her for the night."

"That would actually be lovely."

Marie nodded. "Just let me know what time we should drop her off."

"That won't be necessary. Theo will drive her there and back."

"Theo?" Marie asked, frowning.

How exactly was he supposed to explain that his niece was supernatural royalty and therefore must be accompanied every bloody second by bulky werewolf-vampire hybrids? "My brother's paranoid, and Hope has a bodyguard wherever she goes."

Good enough explanation, hopefully.

"I see," Marie said nodding, though she clearly didn't.

"Is that all right? He'll be fine to sit outside the property in a car if you'd rather have him not come."

This apparently only made Marie more suspicious, judging by the expression on her face. Kol grimaced. "Hope is the only heir in a large family of old money. I hope you can understand why Nik is so paranoid. Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable with Theo's presence? I don't want my brother's paranoia to get in the way of my niece making friends."

Marie nodded slowly, as though thinking it over. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Just let us know what time Theo will arrive with her on Wednesday. There won't be any need for him to lurk outside. He's free to come in and sit in the living room with the girls."

"Excellent," Kol said, pleased with his ability to both schedule Hope for a fun activity  _and_ get her taken off of his hands for a day. He looked up at the clock to see how much time had passed since the start of the lesson, frowning when he realized it had only been ten minutes.

"How long is this class, again?" He asked Marie.

She smiled sympathetically, pulling a book out of her purse. "An hour and a half."

He gave a melodramatic sigh and pulled out his phone.

 


	9. Drive

 

**"Drive" – June 8th, 2028 – Age 16**

* * *

 

"Mum?" Hope called, knocking on the door to Caroline's home office.

"Come in."

Caroline closed her laptop. "What's going on?"

"I got my permit."

"That's great!" Caroline squealed, "I'm so excited to teach you, this'll be so much fun!"

Hope raised an eyebrow. " _You_  want to teach me to drive?"

"What's the tone for?" Caroline asked teasingly.

Hope shrugged. "I just didn't think you'd want to."

"Of course I want to," Caroline said, smiling brightly, "When do you want to go?"

"Whenever, I guess."

Two hours later, Caroline was  _seriously_ regretting her decision.

She was glad that she insisted on Hope driving on their property first. It was huge, and there were some small paved roads winding through the back fields. "Slow down!"

"Relax, Mum, it'll be fine," Hope said, suddenly swerving right at the fork on the road.

"Turn signal," Caroline said tightly, "And don't swerve. Slow down into the turn, speed up out of it."

"I know, I know."

Caroline glared at her daughter out of the corner of her eye. Hope just gave her an innocent smile.

XXX

The sound of tires skidding on pavement and a shrill scream woke Klaus up from a  _very_  pleasant dream involving the re-enactment of a vivid memory of Caroline's lithe form writhing against him with her legs wrapped around his waist while he fucked her against the kitchen counter. He made a mental note to try to convince her to make his dream a reality (again) later as he pulled on sweatpants and sped outside to the back garden to see what all the fuss was about.

What he saw nearly broke his perfect poker face. Caroline was sitting in the passenger seat of her Prius gripping the handle above the car door with both hands, knuckles and face a pasty white, while Hope contentedly put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking "space" (which was basically an entire row of flower beds she had just mauled) and began to pull back out onto the road.

"Mum." He heard Hope say from the inside of the car, "We're both immortal. No matter how badly I drive, we won't die from a car crash."

"Car crashes can cause fires," Caroline said, clearly trying to sound as matter-of-fact as possible, "Fires cause vampire deaths."

"Chill, Mum."

"No. I will not  _chill_ ," Caroline said harshly, grabbing the wheel from her daughter. "Press the brake," she said, before putting the car in park, unlocking the door, and stepping out.

Hope, apparently realizing that the driving lesson was over for the day, pulled the keys out of the ignition and stepped out as well. "Hi, Dad," Hope said cheerfully, slamming the car door behind her.

"Hello, how's the driving going?"

"Peachy," Caroline muttered, running a hand through her hair and shooting him a withering look when she realized that he was trying not to laugh.

He held his hand out towards Hope, who obligingly handed him the car keys before she headed inside. He turned to Caroline. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have one of us do it? It seems to be stressing you out a touch."

Caroline grimaced. "I guess that probably would be better," she said, sighing, "I was hoping for some mother-daughter time, but to be honest I think it's just making us want to strangle each other."

"Well, Hope looked like she was having fun."

"Only because she got to watch me freak out the entire time."

He smirked. "Perhaps."

"How was your nap?"

"Excellent, but not all that restful."

"That's nice," she said absently, making him grin slightly.

* * *

**June 10** **th** **, 2028**

" _Hope!_ " Rebekah screeched, as Hope suddenly slammed the breaks at a yellow light.

"There was a yellow light."

"Yellow lights mean  _slow down_ , not stop. You have to decide whether you can make it or not and act accordingly. Don't just slam on the breaks."

"Sorry," Hope said, her face entirely unapologetic.

Rebekah sighed. The light turned green again, and Hope sped off. Rebekah was slightly thankful that the car she'd been given had poor acceleration, because even though she couldn't die, she could still get hurt and feel pain. She was not looking forward to crashing, which seemed inevitable at this point.

"Turn signal!" She barked as they approached a left turn.

Hope rolled her eyes, but obligingly flicked the turn signal.

"Where are we going?" Hope asked.

"Make a right here. And if I tell you then you won't follow my directions."

"Fine."

When they finally pulled into the mall parking lot, Rebekah was rubbing her temples. Who knew that driving with a teenager, even when immortal, was so nerve wracking?

"Pick a space," she muttered, "And put on your  _turn signal_ when you find it."

Hope flicked her right turn signal and pulled into a space, bumping the curb slightly as she parked. She put the emergency break on and turned the ignition off. "That was fun!" Hope said, a wicked smile on her face.

Rebekah just gave her an unimpressed look and they got out. "If you're trying to annoy me you'll need to do more than that. Unlike your mother, I have had a thousand years to get used to hazardous situations not being as dangerous."

She was lying, but if Hope thought that she wasn't terrified, maybe she'd slow down.

"If you say so. Now c'mon, I'm hungry and I need a new pair of shoes."

"Where do you want to go for lunch?"

They ended up at a small Chinese restaurant a few blocks away.

Hope sipped her soda, her eyes narrowed in thought. "When did you learn to drive?"

"About a year or two before you were born, actually. Your father daggered me in 1928, when automobiles, though common, were a rather recent invention, so I didn't really have a chance to learn earlier than that."

Hope nodded slowly. "What was that like?"

"What, being daggered?" Rebekah asked irritably.

"No, the 1920s."

Rebekah pressed her lips together and frowned slightly. "Well, your father and I had a lot of fun. I don't know exactly what you want to know."

Rebekah couldn't help but feel like Hope was trying to get to something specific.

"Well, I don't know. I guess I just thought that it must have been a lot different back then. I mean, you were daggered for like, 80 years."

"Eighty-three, actually, and don't play with your silverware."

Hope dropped the fork back on the table.

"What do you want to know, exactly?"

"Well, Dad daggered you because you were dating Uncle Stefan, right?"

Rebekah nodded slowly. "I suppose you could say that, yes."

"Do you think that Dad will ever let me date anyone?"

"What do you mean, 'let'?" Rebekah asked suspiciously, "Has he been actively preventing your relationships?"

Hope grimaced. "No, he just scares the crap out of them before they even get past the doorstep."

Rebekah sighed. "Honestly, I don't know if that can be helped. Your Mum would probably be on your side though, depending on the boy, and I definitely would. Love is a wonderful thing, and I wouldn't want you to be deprived of it because your father is a wanker."

Hope giggled.

"Why, any boy in particular?" Rebekah asked, grinning.

Hope shrugged. "I'll let you know once something happens."

Rebekah wanted to know more, but didn't press. If it was someone important, she'd know eventually, and until then she and Caroline could have a lot of fun guessing.

* * *

**June 13** **th** **, 2028**

"No. There is  _no_ way I'm letting you do that," Rebekah said irritably, her arms crossed over her chest, "Hope drives like a madwoman."

Matt sighed. "That's kind of why Caroline asked me."

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at him.

"Look," Matt continued, his hands up in surrender, "Caroline just asked because she knows that Hope will try not to get in an accident. I'm not a vampire, so she could actually kill me. It's good practice."

"Exactly. You could actually  _die._ "

Matt had known that this was a terrible idea—well, that telling Rebekah was a terrible idea. He actually wouldn't have told her until he got back, in a perfect world. Unfortunately, this  _wasn't_ a perfect world, and she had surprised him on his way out. The thing was, he wanted to help. Hope needed some independence, and the only way she was going to get that was by being able to leave the property and spend time other places by herself. Klaus was incredibly protective—which was understandable—but kids need their own time.

"Kids drive with their human family members all the time. It'll be okay, Beks."

"Fine, but bring the vial."

Matt rolled his eyes. "I always have it with me."

Rebekah had given him a vial of her blood, which he wore on a cord around his neck. Though he wasn't sure if he wanted to turn yet, she still made him wear it just in case something happened.

If he was honest with himself, he knew he  _was_  going to turn, he just didn't know how to tell her. He wanted it to be special… He inwardly scoffed at himself for being such a sap.

But really, Rebekah deserved a little romance after the way her life had gone.

He left their penthouse apartment and drove to meet Hope at the mansion. When he got there, she was standing on the front steps pouting while Caroline was in the middle of a lecture about being careful.

He sighed and rolled down the window.

"Ready to go, Hope?"

She nodded enthusiastically and he let her take his place in the driver's seat.

"Be careful!" Caroline shouted as they drove off.

"Where do you want to go?" Matt asked.

"You're letting me pick?" She asked, looking surprised.

Matt gave her a small smile. "The point of this is for you to not kill me, not for you to be bored out of your mind. How about once you go for a half hour of driving without a single mistake, we'll go somewhere."

"Okay."

He was surprised at Hope's competence. From what he'd heard from Caroline and Rebekah, she was having a lot of trouble driving safely. However, she seemed to know perfectly well what she was doing while he was in the car with her.

"Can I ask you a question?"

She shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"You're driving much better than Caroline and Rebekah said you would. Why?"

She snorted. "Do you know how funny Mum looks when she's scared?"

"Wow, Hope, harsh."

"Well if her expression wasn't so priceless I wouldn't have to do it. Can we go to the movies now? The new Titanic remake just came out."

He resisted the urge to throw his head back and sigh. "How long is it?"

"Only four hours," She said cheerfully.

He made a face. "Sure, I guess."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that."

He shrugged. "I promised we could go somewhere you wanted to go."

They were silent for a moment as she started in the direction of the nearest movie theatre. "Are you ever going to turn?" She asked quietly.

"Can you keep a secret?" He asked, smiling slightly.

"Yeah."

"Yes, I am. But I'm waiting a bit to tell your Aunt."

"Why?"

"I want to do something special for it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It's kind of hard to do something for her when she can do whatever she wants."

She gave him a pitying look. "Pretty sure that you could casually mention it over dinner and she'd love it. I don't think it matters."

"I'll think about it."

* * *

**June 15** **th** **, 2028**

"Hope, watch out for the—"

There was a slight bump, and the car starting teetering a bit as it went forward.

"—rock," Kol sighed, "All right, well, teachable moment. Pull over and we'll change the tire."

She did so, and he got the wrench, jack, and spare out of the trunk.

"Can't you just lift the car up?" She asked irritably as he thrust the wrench into her hand.

He smirked. "You won't be able to if you're driving alone. Best to learn now."

"But my shirt will get all icky," she complained.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have run over a rock."

She glared at him. "I'm still learning."

"Excuses," Kol said, grinning slightly, "Go ahead."

"How do I do it?"

"Figure it out," he said dismissively. "I'll stop you if you're about to fuck up."

"Jerk Jar," she mumbled.

Ever since Kol had started babysitting—Hope had been about seven—she had "mysteriously" been learning all kinds of words that she really wasn't supposed to use. Her Mum had come up with a solution and convinced the rest of the Original family to go along with it. The premise was simple. Whenever Hope (or anyone else) said a swear word, they had to put the marble in their jar.

Each of them had one, even Caroline—although hers almost never had marbles.

Over time, the "jerk" behaviors became a longer list, and they had to update their expectations over time. Klaus and Caroline had made sure that Hope knew that they could add things to the list at anytime, and could "jar" her even if the thing she did wasn't on the list.

Kol and Rebekah didn't "jar" her as often as they should, but she wasn't about to complain.

At the end of each month, they added up the marbles that she had "earned," and dealt with her consequence accordingly. In the beginning, Caroline had suggested deducting money from her allowance for the next month, but she had quickly realized that there were so many people that Hope could ask for money (and most of them would give it to her whether she was supposed to have it or not), it was pointless to use that as motivation.

Instead, she ended up doing chores.

The rest of the family couldn't exactly have punishments for their jars, but her Mum usually found a way to make their lives miserable somehow.

"Hey, darling, don't get me in trouble."

"Why?"

"I'm watching you next week, remember?"

She groaned and bent down, starting to loosen the nuts on the wheel. She started to remove the lug nuts completely and Kol reached out a hand to stop her.

"No, darling, use the jack first. If you take the nuts off completely it'll be much more difficult."

She did so, and carefully pulled the lug nuts off before removing the tire and replacing it with the spare. She put everything back in the trunk and then got back into the driver's seat, pulling on her seatbelt and starting the ignition. They pulled away from the curb and started down the street again.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Asshole," she mumbled.

"Jar!" He said cheerfully.

* * *

**June 19** **th** **, 2028**

Elijah Mikaelson had a secret. And he did mean that in past tense, as Hope had just discovered it.

"Who taught that piece of swine excrement to drive? What an imbecile," he grumbled after they got cut off by a pickup truck.

Hope snorted as she looked out the window from the passenger seat. They had driven for about an hour and a half out of town to a restaurant Hope had wanted to try, and she insisted that he drive them back. Usually a hybrid drove them wherever they were going, but since Hope was supposed to be practicing, he hadn't seen a need for one. He agreed to her request, mostly because he was an awful backseat driver, without much consideration for what her seeing him drive might mean.

He put his turn signal on and merged to the fast lane, only to end up right behind a sedan that was going forty-five on the highway. "Speed up, you're on the highway. It isn't exactly difficult to drive in a straight line," he said sharply, glaring at the car in front of them.

He merged again to drive past him so that he could get in the fast lane in front of it.

"Is he texting? Oh, he's texting. What a simpleminded fool. This new technology makes it infinitely more difficult to ensure safe transport anywhere! I cannot believe that more people don't die every day."

He sped up to go seventy, his eyes narrowed.

Hope smirked from the passenger seat. "Road rage much, Uncle 'Lijah?"

He gave an elegant sniff of disdain and sped up again.

"You do realize that you're speeding, right?"

"I don't care. There's no one on the highway, and we need to get you home."

Suddenly, sirens came up behind them, and Elijah sighed, pulling over onto the shoulder.

The officer came over and Elijah rolled down the window.

"Identification and papers, please," the officer said boredly.

Elijah looked him in the eye. "There was a misunderstanding. You'll let me go with no ticket."

"Of course, I'll let you go with no ticket," the officer said, a blank look on his face.

They pulled back on the road, and Hope frowned.

"What am I supposed to do if I get a ticket? I can't compel my way out of it."

"Hand over your papers. I think it will be good for you to learn some responsib—Oh, honestly. Hasn't anyone on this damn highway taken a driving test?"

Hope giggled.

"I apologize. I am being rather inappropriate."

Hope shrugged, smirking. "I'm enjoying myself."

"Of course you are," Elijah muttered, taking their exit and running two red lights and a stop sign.


	10. Cheer

"Cheer" – August 29th, 2029 – Age 17

* * *

 

Klaus sat in the bleachers around the high school stadium observing the chaos around him. It was Hope's first game as cheer captain, and Caroline had insisted they go to support her.

Frankly, he didn't see what was so important about the whole thing, but it made Caroline happy and it made Hope happy, and he wasn't going to try to work against that outcome. He put his arm around Caroline's waist and tugged her a bit closer, and she sighed. "Klaus, no one's going to try to kill me in a giant arena full of people."

"You'd be surprised, love," He muttered, straining his ears to listen to any threats.

The football team was mediocre at best, and though he'd much rather watch the game than listen for possible problems, since it was incredibly boring he might as well. They still had about half an hour before they started anyway. He wasn't sure why Caroline always insisted on getting everywhere early (her excuse was always that she wanted good seats), but he was willing to go along with it.

"Want to get me water and a candy bar from the vending machine?" She asked, her expression making it clear that it was a demand rather than a request, "I'll be fine for three minutes."

"What do you want?" He asked, knowing that the sooner he came back the less likely that anything would happen.

She shrugged. "Surprise me."

He left for a few minutes, and was making his way back (two bottles of water and a bag of M&Ms in hand) when he heard a small group of teenage boys a few rows behind her in the bleachers.

" _Who's that? She doesn't go here, does she? I've never seen her." One asked._

" _No, you know Hope Mikaelson? That's her Mom."_

" _No way, man. She's way too hot to be that old."_

" _I'd tap that, though," Another one piped up, a wicked grin on his face._

His eye twitched, and Caroline turned to find him, pointedly motioning him to come over (and not kill the boys). He huffed and handed her the M&Ms and water, and she snuggled up next to him, her hand clamping down on his—non-verbally telling him that he was most definitely  _not_ allowed to react.

" _Pff, who wouldn't?" The first one said._

Klaus's hand twitched, and Caroline glared at him.

" _No way though, she's gotta be her step-mom or something."_

" _Still a total MILF," The first one insisted._

"What's a MILF?" Klaus asked quietly.

Caroline snorted. "Mom I'd Like to Fuck."

He nearly stood up and she squeezed his hand even more tightly. "You are  _not_ going to kill them. They're seventeen year old boys, they don't know what they're saying."

"Clearly they do, love," He muttered.

" _Nah, she's not her step-mom. Look, that must be her Dad. He looks like he's twenty-five."_

" _Think Hope'll be that hot at thirty-five?"_

He actually did stand up this time, but Caroline pulled him back down, the force of it nearly knocking him off-balance. " _Niklaus_ ," she hissed.

"Their parents will never find their remains," he snarled under his breath.

The boys continued talking, blissfully unaware that their fates were being decided six rows down from them.

" _Best ass I've seen in a long time, though."_

"They can't even see your arse, you're sitting down," Klaus said under his breath.

Caroline snorted. "They see me pick Hope up pretty often, you know."

This was the wrong thing to say. "They've spoken about you like that before?" He asked, scandalized.

"Not them specifically."

"You're telling me  _others_ have spoken of you like that?"

She gave him a fierce look. "People have been doing that since I was fifteen. It's not exactly anything new. I get catcalled on the street all the time when I'm not with you."

 _I will kill them all,_  he vowed to himself silently.

"Why haven't you ever told me?"

"It wouldn't have done any good. No matter what you did, it would still happen," She said, shrugging and popping an M&M in her mouth.

" _Nice rack, too,_ " one of them said.

"I'll be right back," he said sharply.

"No, don't…"

"I'm not going to injure them, Caroline,"  _at least, not at the moment_ , "I'm just going to talk to them."

"Look, the game's about to start!" Caroline said happily, tugging his hand before he could do anything, "You need to watch your daughter. Watching her is worth more than those assholes."

"I think a piece of toast is worth more than them," He muttered.

She smiled.

They were only halfway through the first quarter when one of them spoke again.

" _On a scale of one to ten, how creepy is it to want a mother/daughter threesome?"_

He had to hand it to her, Caroline acted fast. She grabbed his arm and immediately pulled him out of the bleachers and all the way to the car. "Not worth it," she said, her lips twitching slightly.

He was appalled at her reaction. "You think this is—is  _funny_?"

She shrugged. "It's not like they had a chance," she said, smiling, "Although," she added mischievously, "The redhead was kind of cute. Too bad he was such a dirtbag."

He felt his hybrid features coming out, but suppressed them before saying, "Oh, I don't think so love."

She smirked slightly and then squeaked as he immediately attacked her lips, pushing her against the car, his hands on either side of her head. He nipped roughly at her lips with his blunt teeth, drawing blood, and slid his hands under the skirt of her sundress to cup her ass, pulling her up so that she was forced to hook her legs around his waist for balance, trapped between the hard angles of his body and the backseat window of the car.

When he pulled away, she looped her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in her hair to bring his lips back to hers, moaning as his tongue invaded her mouth and his hands cupped her breasts through the thin cloth of the dress bodice.

He pulled lips off of hers and attached them to the juncture of her neck and shoulder, smirking when she gasped his name.

"Klaus…Klaus we're in public."

"Let them see," he mumbled.

"You hate kissing in public," she said, her last words transitioning to a sigh as he scraped the sensitive skin of her shoulder with his teeth.

"Generally I don't like to, you're correct," he admitted, "But then again I never had a reason to, before."

Then again, having their daughter catch them having sex against the car might scar her for life. He gave her neck one last nip before withdrawing and opening the passenger seat for her. She raised an eyebrow at his sudden mood change and got in, fastening her seatbelt.

They skidded to a halt less than a minute later by the side of an abandoned road and he pulled her out of the car and lifted her to sit on the hood, stopping for a moment to take in the sight of her flushed face and dark eyes before fusing his lips to hers again. He pressed one hand against her lower back and let the other slide up her inner thighs to rip her underwear cleanly in two and plunge a finger into her tight wet heat. She moaned, parting her legs wantonly and fisting the front of his shirt for balance.

"Is this some ridiculous wolf-claiming thing?" She asked breathlessly, exposing her neck a little bit more to encourage his hot open-mouthed kisses.

"It's not ridiculous, love."

He added another and thrust them in and out, rubbing her clit with his thumb, before tearing his lips away from her neck, pushing her down to lie against the hood of the car while he stood over her, one hand braced on the hood next to her head while the other continued to finger-fuck her. Her hips came up to meet his fingers with each thrust, her eyes closed and chest heaving, so that her breasts were escaping slightly from the bodice of her strapless dress.

" _Yes_ ," she gasped. "Fuck…Klaus, yes,  _right_  there…"

Without stopping the rhythm of his fingers, he gripped her hip and pulled her closer to the front of the hood and dropped to his knees, dropping a few kisses and soft bites to the insides of her thighs before letting his tongue run over her clit.

He heard her head bang slightly against the metal of the car as she jerked from the sensation and smirked slightly as he withdrew his fingers and began to swirl his tongue around her clit before thrusting it into her opening, causing her to let out a loud moan. Her fingers tangled in his hair as she held his face down to her dripping pussy, his tongue and teeth licking and nipping softly, her legs spreading even wider to give him better access as he lapped up her juices.

When he started thrusting into her with his fingers again, she pressed herself up against his lips, trying to get him to penetrate her even more deeply with his fingers and tongue. It was when he gently sucked on her clit that she broke, coming hard, and he licked up her juices, moaning at the taste.

He kissed the inside of her thighs lightly before standing up to kiss her roughly on the lips, pushing his tongue into her mouth so that she could taste herself. She moaned and reached down to unbutton his jeans and wrapped her small hand around his cock, pumping lightly, causing him to groan into her mouth. She rubbed her thumb against the tip, and he bucked into her hand before lifting up the skirts of her dress around her hips and tugging her hand away so that he could enter her.

They both moaned as he sheathed himself in her dripping pussy, and he began to slam into her, causing the car to jerk with every thrust. She wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to pull him even deeper into her.

"Harder," she ordered.

He pulled out of her, and when she glared at him, he smirked and flipped her over, trapping her wrists against the hood of the car as he entered her from behind, slamming into her hard. He could see her breasts bursting out of her dress from the reflection in the windshield, and her eyes were closed in pure ecstasy, her mouth slightly open.

Breathy little moans were escaping her as he took her faster, and he held both her wrists with one hand, moving the other to rub her clit while he fucked her, and she came again, his name rolling off of her lips in the most delicious way, her juices dripping down his cock and the insides of her thighs.

"Do you like it when I get jealous, Caroline?" He asked, his voice slightly strangled, "When I get so  _angry_  at the though of another man looking at you that I have a desperate  _need_ for you? When I drag you off to the nearest spot so that I can  _take_ you and bury my cock into your tight little pussy? Do you do this to me on purpose?"

" _Klaus_ ," she gasped out, "Oh my god, Klaus,  _fuck._ "

He gripped her hips and slammed into her harder.

"Do you taunt me on purpose, love? Do you  _like_ knowing that you can do this to me?"

" _Yes_ ," she gasped, her voice raspy and needy, "Yes, Klaus."

He groaned at her admission and tightened his grip on her wrists, letting his hybrid features come out and thrusting his wrist in front of her mouth so that she could drink from him as he buried his fangs in her neck.

The combination of her fangs penetrating the sensitive skin of his wrist, the taste of her blood in his mouth, and the feeling of her pussy squeezing his cock as he slammed into her made him come undone, and he came, his come dripping down her thighs as he pulled out of her and let go of her wrists.

She turned around and kissed him before pulling back, her dark eyes and flushed cheeks making him smirk, and she smoothed her dress over her thighs. "Take me home."

"With pleasure, love."


	11. The Proposal

"The Proposal" - July 20th, 2033 - Age 21

* * *

 

"What are your plans for the day, love?" Klaus asked, poking his head into Caroline's home office.

She looked up from her laptop. "I actually don't have any. I had some meetings with clients this morning, but all my work is done for now. Why?"

He had been planning this day for months—ever since Hope had brought that hooligan home for dinner, who she had promptly broken up with some months later after she became bored of him—and he was nervous.

While he and Caroline didn't technically have an anniversary (as they would both have very different opinions about when their relationship started), they had arbitrarily put it on July 22nd, mostly because it wasn't too close to any of their birthdays (Klaus's was in January), or any major holidays, but still fell during the time that Caroline would have been at the safehouse.

Either way, it was a few days early, but that was the point of the surprise.

"Would you like to go for a drive with me?"

He smirked as she shot him a suspicious look. "…A drive?"

Nothing like feeding her true but misleading information to make sure that she didn't guess a surprise he had in store.

"Well, I suppose it would be more of a ride."

She narrowed her eyes. "That's not some horribly constructed sexual innuendo, is it? Because that's just really… _bad._ "

He grinned. "Not unless you want it to be."

"Well, I'm not opposed to it, but something tells me that you have something else in mind," she said, her lips twitching.

"I do. I think you'll enjoy it."

"If you say so. Any hints?"

He knew that a million prospects were going through her head right now.

"Nope," he said, smiling widely.

"Should I have a jacket?" She asked, clearly trying to narrow down the possibilities.

"Probably."

"What kind?"

"Warm enough that you won't be cold if we're outside for awhile."

**XXX**

She frowned as she slid into the passenger seat of the Mercedes next to him. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

He pulled out of the long driveway and onto the road. They drove for a short distance, which Caroline spent guessing where they were going and what they were doing.

"Horses?"

"No."

"Carriage rides?"

"Nope."

"Art museum?"

"Of course not. You hate that. You barely suffer through it when I want to go," he said, grinning.

"No I don't," she said, glaring at him.

Actually, she absolutely did hate art museums, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was right.

"Um, picnic?"

"Close, but no, love."

They pulled up to a large park, and he held the passenger door open for her, looking uncharacteristically nervous. She frowned, but took his hand and laced her fingers through his, walking down the park path.

He led her over to a park bench and sat down, motioning for her to join him, which she did.

"Have I ever told you how I knew I had fallen in love with you, Caroline?"

 _Interesting conversation opener,_ she thought. "Not specifically, no, I don't think so."

"Well, it started, as you most likely assume, when Tyler bit you. As you know, I always planned to heal you to secure the support of your mother, but you impressed me. You didn't beg or plead with me. You piqued my interest. I admit, I had no intention to pursue you at that point. I invited you to the ball simply out of curiosity.

"When you gave me that well-worded verbal lashing, I was honestly impressed by your sheer nerve. Not many have ever spoken to me that way—excluding my family, of course—and none of them have lived, besides you. I admit that I'm still not sure why I didn't kill you that day. Perhaps a part of me knew how special you were before the rest of me."

" _Very_ romantic, Klaus," Caroline said, trying not to laugh.

"It's  _true._ "

She just rolled her eyes.

"Well, regardless, when you helped the doppelganger in her attempt to kill Kol, I resolved never to speak to you again. Or think of you. I burned all of my sketches of you, you know. Or, at least, all the ones I had drawn up to that point. To be honest I had just as many done by the next month."

She snorted. "That's not creepy."

"I was so  _angry_. If you had been anyone else, you would have been dead. I started to your house that night with the intent to kill you. And as you know, I could have done it, too. I had the invitation to your house, after all."

She stared at him, wide-eyed, and he hastened to clarify. "I never got out the door, love, of course. In fact, I barely made it out of my study. I just couldn't do it. That was when I realized that I was in trouble.

"At the dance…When Alaric was after you…When I took over Tyler's body and went to save Bekah…I was determined to let you die. And I couldn't. I couldn't let myself. I finally realized why when the doppelganger triggered the Hunter's Curse.

"I could tell you were playing the distraction again at that bar the entire time, Caroline. You always had the same nervous look on your face, no matter how much you tried to hide it. And you looked at me, and said 'So, don't get mad' and I knew that your friends must have done something monumentally stupid. I was right, of course."

"Of course," Caroline echoed, smirking slightly.

"And I don't know if you remember what I said—"

"Caroline, you're beautiful, but if you don't stop talking I will kill you," Caroline quoted in what must have been the worst attempt at a British accent he had ever heard in his very long life.

He laughed. "Yes. I realized I loved you, right then."

"Seriously?  _That's_ when you realized you loved me? When you were threatening to kill me?"

"It was always an empty threat, love, as you well know."

She gave him a half-amused-half-exasperated look. "If you say so."

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and she resisted the urge to smile at his tenderness. "It  _was_ that moment, Caroline. I truly saw you, I think, for the first time. Your courageousness, your  _genuine beauty_ ," he quoted, making her smile, "I realized how strong you were…How  _bright_. And after that, I was even more determined to show you. When you came to the mansion, shouting about the prom dress—"

"Wait."

"Hmm?"

"You skipped the stake incident."

"Fishing for compliments are we?"

She gave him an impish smile.

"I simply skipped over it because it was irrelevant. I still loved you, you still hated me, nothing had changed. If I may continue…?"

"The stake incident wasn't important, but the  _prom dress_ was?"

"You asked me for help for something that didn't involve a life-threatening emergency, of course it was significant."

She snorted.

"You have no idea how long I spent picking out that dress."

She grinned. "How long?"

"Let's just say that I inspected each and every dress in Rebekah's vast collection, and when I found none of them to be up to standard, I secured a friend of mine to assist me with an online shopping excursion."

"How did you manage that? Prom was the same day," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Rebekah and I have sustained a long friendship with the House of Fürstenberg in Germany—"

"You had  _Diane von Fürstenburg_ help pick my prom dress? Like, THE Diane von Fürstenburg?"

"One of her employees in New York, actually. She helped me pick out your blue gown as well. I had her fly down with it in the jet in order to get it to you in time."

Caroline just stared at him.

In their twenty years together, she had never known that.

"And then I left, and I got your graduation invite, and your twenty-something voicemail messages, and I came to see you."

"And you bought me a minifridge."

"And I bought you a minifridge."

"And you said you'd be my last love."

"And I meant it," he agreed.

She gave him a brilliant smile, and he shifted uncomfortably. "Right, well, I was talking to Bonnie a few weeks ago."

"Okay…?" She asked, frowning, unsure where he was going with the abrupt change of subject.

"We talked about when you first transitioned."

Her eyebrows rose. "You mean when Bonnie was unsupportive and wanted to kill me?"

He grimaced. "Yes."

"Okay, and?"

"She said that you didn't like your daylight ring."

Caroline nodded slowly, and Klaus smiled softly.

"It struck me then how sad it would be for you to have to wear something you hated for the rest of your life. For eternity," he said, grinning at her, all dimples.

Her eyes went wide, and she saw where this was going. He pulled out a box from his pocket.

"I love you, Caroline. You  _are_ my light. I've…I've taken the liberty of having a new daylight ring made for you," he said, opening the box, where two rings sat side-by-side.

He smiled. "I want to commit to you, Caroline. I'm not one for…for human traditions like weddings, and I'm glad that you accept that about me. But I wanted to show you somehow, that I do intend on being with you for eternity. I meant what I said that day."

He held out the rings for her to look at, and she took the box, smiling slightly, feeling tears prick at her eyes.

"I had these engraved. Though in context the words had a different meaning…I thought they were appropriate."

One of the rings was a delicate gold, and it was exactly the kind she would have picked out for herself, had she been told that daylight rings existed in advance. The inside had an engraving.

… _I promise…_

She looked at the other one, which was larger and less flashy. It was a simple platinum band, also engraved.

… _good…_

Her eyes went wide, and he hastened to add, "If you don't like it, we can pick out another one."

She shook her head, and though her breath caught as she spoke, she was somewhere in between happy tears and laughing. "No, no I love it."

She carefully set her ring back in the box and handed it back to him. He gave her a confused look, but smirked as she put out her hand expectantly.

"Well, come on, put it on me, we don't have all night," she said, smiling widely.

He slid it on her finger, and she saw him smile out of the corner of her eye as she admired the way it looked against her hand, before taking his hand in hers and doing the same for him.

"At the risk of sounding cliché, as it is something you so often accuse me of," he started, grinning as she sniggered, "You're correct. We don't have all night. We have eternity."

She rolled her eyes even as she melted into his kiss.


	12. Kicked Out

"Kicked Out" – January 13th & 14th, 2013 – 9 months

* * *

"You  _what_?"

"I daggered Rebekah," he repeated.

He never would have told anyone else, but honesty was important to him and to Caroline, and he knew that she would be more than angry if he didn't tell her. Unfortunately, she was more than angry now.

"Where is she?"

"She's in her coffin, I'll let her out soon."

"And when's  _soon_ , 2050?"

Klaus ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at the look of absolute fury on the face of the love of his life.

"Where is she?"

Klaus frowned. "Why?"

"Because I want you to let her out."

"I won't. It'll only be for a bit, love."

"Tell me where she is."

"Why, so  _you_  can let her out?"

Caroline just gave him the most hateful glare he'd ever seen.

"Look, Caroline—"

"No. No, don't you  _look, Caroline_ me, buddy. You had no right at  _all_ to do that."

Actually, in his opinion, he had  _every_ right. After what she'd said, Rebekah had practically been  _begging_ to be daggered.

Not that he'd say that to Caroline, of course. He had learned by now that there were times when he should just stop talking and allow her to rant, which she was doing rather enthusiastically. Her hands were waving around in the air, her cheeks flushed with anger and her eyes narrowed.

"—going to tell me where she is, I don't want to see you tonight. We'll talk more tomorrow," she finished whatever she had been saying—he honestly hadn't been paying too much attention—her arms crossed over her chest, before turning on her heel and slamming the bedroom door behind her.

Wait, did she just  _couch_ him?

He knocked on the door. "Caroline, love—"

"There are blankets in the closet," her muffled voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"Yes, I know there are blankets in the closet," he said, opening the door and ducking the pillow she threw at him, "But you can't just banish me from our bedroom."

He saw her face and decided right then and there that whether she was able to kick him out of their room or not he should probably just do what she wanted anyway.

"Niklaus," she said, her voice dangerously quiet, "We'll talk in the morning."

"Good night, love," he said, giving her his best sad-eyes.

She just glared at him silently and turned over, putting a pillow over her head.

XXX

He was very happy that he'd had the forethought to make sure that there were fully-furnished guest rooms in the house. The one he was using right now was a few doors down from his and Caroline's bedroom. He had been in bed for three hours and was no closer to falling asleep than he had been when he first laid down. This was the first time he'd slept without Caroline since she had returned from the safehouse. He missed her touch, the way that her body curled into his when she was cold, how her hair would spill everywhere, occasionally getting in the way of him moving or breathing.

He knew why she was so angry, he wasn't stupid. Caroline and Rebekah had become very close.

She was upset because her friend would be indisposed for awhile.

He sighed and turned over. Would she banish him to the guest room until Rebekah had woken up? He didn't think he could handle that. He might have spent a thousand years without her, but he had no intention of giving her up now that he had grown to care for her.

He heard Hope wailing from the next room and decided that since he was up he might as well be on Hope duty.

He swung his legs out of bed and walked to the nursery, running his hands through his hair. Hope was lying in her crib, looking up at him with watery eyes.

She had stopped crying loudly once he had entered, and her sobs were reduced to sniffles once he picked her up.

"Shh…It's all right," he said quietly, moving her up in his arms a bit more so that her head laid more securely against his chest, "What's wrong, love?"

His daughter's fist wound itself in his shirt, and he smiled slightly, sinking down in the rocking chair in the corner.

"Are you just tired?" He asked rhetorically, rocking lightly back and forth, "I know that you had a long day."

Hope and Caroline had taken a walk that morning, and then Caroline had taken her for swimming lessons at the local pool—something about hand-eye coordination and muscle development.

Hope didn't answer, of course, but she gave a light little baby sigh and stopped fussing completely.

"Your Mum is angry at me," he said quietly, not quite knowing why he was confiding in his daughter, though, he rationalized, it's not as though she could understand what he was saying, "I daggered your Aunt Rebekah and put her in a coffin for a bit. I know it wasn't the nicest thing to do, but she was making me angry, and I didn't want to do something I'd regret."

Hope gave a tiny gurgle, and he smiled softly.

"I know, I know…I'll most likely regret daggering her. I just…I was so angry."

He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"If she had said something like that a few years ago, I probably would have kept her in there for a decade, but I suppose that it's not exactly fair to make her miss you growing up."

Hope curled her hand around his fingers, and smiled at him.

"I can't handle your mother being angry, you know. I would probably do most anything she wished if it kept her happy. I suppose that I should undagger Rebekah, hmm?"

Hope gave a little yawn, her eyes fluttering.

"I suppose it's time for you to go to bed, isn't it?'

Klaus lowered Hope into the crib, smiling slightly as her breathing immediately deepened, before walking back out into the hall. He snuck into the room he shared with Caroline, smirking to himself when he saw that she had changed into one of his Henleys and was sleeping on his side of the bed, her face buried in the pillow that he usually used. He grabbed some fresh clothing and changed before retrieving two blood bags from the fridge and heading out the door to visit his dear sister.

He entered the warehouse warily; his steps light as he walked to the coffin in the corner, clutching a blood bag. He opened the coffin door to see his sister, her face set in an angry frown, grey veins creeping up her face.

He took hold of the dagger and pulled.

She had been daggered for just under a day, and her eyes immediately opened. He offered a blood bag to her, which she snatched from his hand, drained, and then sped to the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, her arms crossed in front of her.

"How long?" She asked, her tone deceptively calm.

"Less than a day," he said quietly, tucking the dagger into this jacket pocket.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Caroline," he said, by way of explanation, and she nodded, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"You're a selfish bastard," Rebekah said shortly, as though she was stating that there was going to be an incredibly inconvenient snowstorm.

He shrugged. "You deserved it."

She snorted derisively. "Of course you feel that way."

"I'm not going to apologize," he said shortly, before speeding away back to the mansion.

He climbed up the stairs, hoping that Caroline would welcome him back. He shed his jeans and shirt onto the floor of their bedroom before pulling the covers out slightly and crawling in, pulling Caroline to his chest.

She cracked open an eye. "I told you to stay away."

"She's undaggered," he said, pressing his lips together.

Caroline buried her head into his chest. "I'm still angry."

"I know."

"You can stay though. I'm cold."

He smiled. "Is that the only reason?"

"Don't push it, we have extra blankets," she muttered, cuddling closer to him.

"Of course not, love."

She smiled into his chest and her breathing deepened in sleep a few minutes later, as did his.

XXX

Rebekah sat at the kitchen table, clutching her coffee, looking through apartment listings. It was high time that she moved out. Matt had enrolled at Tulane, and he was staying in the dorms there for his first year. However, Rebekah knew that he would want to live off-campus the next year—and she definitely wasn't complaining about that—so it was high time she bought somewhere for them to live.

She was also sick of living in the mansion. No matter how adorable her niece was, she needed space away from her brother and Caroline.

Not that she didn't like Caroline, Caroline was her best friend, but she was tired of sharing her space. She'd been doing that for a thousand years in one way or another and she just wanted to be on her own for once.

When she had tried to express this need to her brother however, he had gotten upset.

He saw it as her leaving him. It didn't matter that she'd most likely be less than a half hour's drive away, or that she was going to come around often because of her niece.

Luckily, it seemed that Caroline had talked some sense into him. Or perhaps she had threatened him; Rebekah still wasn't quite clear on the details. She heard Caroline's light footsteps on the stairs followed by her brother's heavier ones, and smiled at her friend as she walked into the kitchen.

Caroline poured herself a cup of coffee with blood, and then moved so that Klaus could do the same before raising her eyebrows and dipping her head towards Rebekah.

Klaus rolled his eyes but turned to Rebekah, standing at the end of the table, looking rather like a five year old that had been reprimanded on the playground for being rude.

Caroline stood on the side, within eyesight of both Rebekah and her brother, glaring at Klaus, who shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

He was silent for a moment, and then shot Caroline his puppy eyes, to which Caroline raised an eyebrow.

He sighed.

"I'm sorry, Bekah," he ground out.

It was all Rebekah could do not to burst out laughing, especially when she saw Caroline make a "go on" motion out of the corner of her eye.

"I should not have daggered you," he continued, "And it was inappropriate for me to do so."

He stopped talking for a moment, causing Caroline to narrow her eyes. "And?" She prompted.

"And I fully support your decision to move out," he said, glaring at her, his voice and face a direct contrast to his words.

"Why  _thank you,_ Nik," Rebekah said, purposefully trying to irritate him, "I accept your apology."

He grunted and stomped up the stairs with his coffee without a backward glance.

Caroline smirked at his retreating form, causing Rebekah to start laughing. "How did you manage to get him to do that?"

"Oh, I just kicked him out of our room until he undaggered you, and then revoked his sex privileges until he apologized."

Rebekah coughed into her coffee, causing Caroline to giggle. "Well, thank you," Rebekah said sincerely, "I really appreciate it, Caroline."

"Of course," Caroline said, giving Rebekah a brilliant smile, "What kinds of places have you been looking at?"

Rebekah opened up her bookmarks folder of possible apartments, and they sat there for a while going over the options.

XXX

It had only been about half an hour before Hope started fussing. "I'll go," Rebekah volunteered, "I'm going to miss this later, I'm sure, no matter how annoying it is now."

Caroline nodded and they walked up the stairs together, Rebekah towards the nursery, and Caroline towards the bedroom.

She found Klaus in only his jeans toweling off his hair, still looking incredibly grumpy. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" She asked, smirking at him.

He glared at her.

She walked over, resting her hand on his shoulders and gave him a quick kiss. "I love you. I'm sorry that I was so hard on you. I just…Rebekah's my friend, and she just wanted some independence, you know? And now you have me, and you know that I'm not going anywhere," she babbled, slightly nervous of his reaction.

His face softened, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him so that her head rested on his naked chest. "I love you, too," He said quietly, burying his nose in her hair, "And I'm sorry that I lost my temper."

"Me too," she said quietly.

They stood there together, completely wrapped up in each other, and somehow, though he had just daggered Rebekah and tended to kill large groups of people when provoked, she had never felt safer.


	13. The Zoo & Moving In

"The Zoo" – July 12th, 2014 – Age Two

* * *

 

" _Oh, she looks just like you! Look at those dimples!"_

There was something about hot men holding babies that made women go crazy, and unfortunately for Caroline, Klaus was a hot man who was holding a baby.

She gave an exasperated sigh as she returned from the public bathroom near the penguin enclosure to see Klaus with Hope perched on his shoulders talking to three girls who all looked barely older than twenty.

Caroline had no idea why anyone would wear tiny dresses and platform wedges to the zoo, but these girls apparently thought that it was the correct attire. It wasn't that she looked down upon it, but three-inch heels didn't exactly seem like a comfortable choice for a day full of walking.

On second thought, as she watched the one with the strawberry blonde hair move closer to Hope under the guise of making a peek-a-boo face with her chest thrust out in such a way that Klaus would have a very clear view of her cleavage (had he been looking), she understood  _exactly_ why.

To anyone who didn't know him, he wouldn't have looked the least bit uncomfortable, but Caroline could see that he most definitely did  _not_ want to be talking to them. She continued listening into the conversation as she walked towards them.

"She's adorable! How old is she?"

"Two," Klaus said shortly, with a smile that probably looked incredibly benign to the women in front of him. It would have to Caroline too, if she hadn't known him well enough to see that he was probably about half a minute away from killing all three of the girls.

That is, until he saw her coming towards them.

Klaus caught her eye over the girl's shoulder and gave her a smug "look at these girls who think I'm incredibly attractive" look. She gave him an exaggerated eye-roll, and he grinned.

"What's her name?"

Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose once she saw Klaus's expression. He definitely had a flare for the dramatics, and she already knew that he was about to turn on the charm.

A few months before, he had confronted her about her tendency to flirt with men around him in plain view, and she had given him the innocent act, knowing perfectly well that it absolutely enraged him.

It also caused excellent make-up sex, which was why she did it.

He seemed to realize her motives very quickly, and started to attempt to not react when she flirted with men in front of him. He almost always lost the internal battle, but she knew that he tried. Other than that, he hadn't retaliated.

That was, until now. She realized that the time for retribution had come.

Sure enough, he shot a dimpled smile at the brunette and his voice suddenly took on a honeyed tone. "Her name is Hope."

"That's a pretty name."

"What are your names?" He asked the girls semi-casually.

The brunette batted her eyelashes. "I'm Jenny, and this is Ashley and Hailey."

Caroline watched as Klaus's face took on a wicked smile for a split second before he turned to Hailey, who hadn't said one word in the entire time Caroline watched. "Beautiful name."

Hailey blushed. "Thanks," She said shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear and looking up at him through her eyelashes.

He smiled at her, and shot a fleeting glance at Caroline, checking to see if she was still watching.

"It's lovely to meet you," He said, taking Hailey's hand and kissing it lightly.

By that point, Caroline had had enough, and she sauntered up to the group and smiled softly when Hope wiggled around on top of Klaus's shoulders and pulled her chubby fingers through his hair, making him wince. "Mama!"

Caroline flashed a thousand-watt smile at her daughter before catching Klaus's lips in a soft but possessive kiss. She turned away from a Klaus's smug face to face the girls, who were suddenly looking slightly embarrassed, and gave them a cold look.

"Sorry, your baby is really cute," Ashley said, smiling awkwardly.

"I know. She gets it from her father," Caroline said dryly, causing Klaus to snigger.

The girls looked slightly confused, but didn't move.

After a few seconds of waiting for them to leave, Caroline grasped Klaus's hand in her own. "We should probably get lunch, I'm starving, and then we can go to the wolf enclosure," she said to Klaus, before looking up at Hope and adding, "Want to see the wolves?"

"Olf!" Hope said excitedly, still unable to pronounce the "w."

"Have a nice day," Caroline said to the girls, her bright tone carrying an undercurrent of warning.

"You too," Jenny mumbled.

Caroline tugged Klaus (and by extension, Hope) to the food stand on the other side of the path.

"How did  _that_ happen?"

Klaus smirked. "They  _accidentally_ bumped into me, of course."

"Wow. That strategy must be at  _least_ as old as you are."

He laughed. "Most likely. Doesn't stop them from using it, however," He said to her, before turning to the teenage boy behind the sandwich cart, "I'd like a ham sandwich. What would you like, love?" He asked Caroline, turning to her.

"Turkey, please."

The boy handed over their sandwiches, and Klaus passed Hope to Caroline so that he could pay. They took a seat at the nearest picnic table and Caroline pulled the baby food jar out of the bag she carried with her.

"Does that happen often?" She asked casually.

"It's hard to keep track," He said, before taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Oh?" Caroline said, raising an eyebrow, knowing that he was trying to rile her up.

He shrugged. She smiled slyly and waited until he took another bite of his sandwich to time her next comment appropriately. "Well, you can  _bump_  into me any time."

He coughed slightly, glaring at her when she started giggling.

Hope giggled happily when Caroline started laughing, and Caroline smiled at Hope before picking up one of the face wipes she kept in the bag and cleaning up Hope's face.

"Olf!" Hope said excitedly.

"We'll go in a minute," Caroline reassured her.

"No," Hope said, sticking out her lower lip.

Caroline and Klaus exchanged a look. "You need to let us finish our food first, all right, love?"

"No," Hope said, glaring at Klaus.

"Hope, I need you to wait, it'll only be a minute or two," Caroline said kindly, taking a bite of her sandwich.

Hope narrowed her eyes and the wrapper of Caroline's sandwich burst into flames. Caroline managed to restrain her shriek, but dropped the wrapper. Klaus, looking bored, poured the bottle of water that Caroline had been drinking from onto the sandwich wrapper.

"Hope," He said quietly, turning to his daughter, "Fire kills vampires, and you could have killed Mum."

"No, she couldn't have," Caroline argued, keeping her voice low, but Klaus shook his head.

"She needs to know the dangers," he said, and then turned to Hope, "We're going home."

"Olf!" Hope said loudly, tears filling her eyes.

"It's not safe for you to let your magic lose control like this, so we're going home," Klaus said patiently.

Caroline shot him a look. Did he really expect Hope to understand such a complex thought?

"Hope, you can't set things on fire. We're going home," Caroline said again, hoping that this would get the message idea across better, and picked up her daughter, balancing her on her hip.

After a quick check to make sure that no one had noticed the fire—no one had—they headed back to the car.

* * *

"Moving In" – August 21st, 2030 – Age 18

* * *

 

"Did you remember the portable coat rack?" Hope asked frantically as she searched through the countless cardboard boxes littering her dorm room.

"Yes, love. I'm sure it's there somewhere," Klaus said, checking his phone for voicemails.

"I can't move in without it, okay?"

He closed his eye briefly trying to resist pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure it's there. Here, shall I go and see if it's still in the car? We still have some boxes left to bring up."

"Yes, please," Hope said distractedly, already focusing on hanging up her dresses in the closet.

He sighed and left the room, stowing his phone back into his pocket. He dodged two or three people carrying large boxes and managed to avoid colliding with a woman on the stairs, who had been lugging a minifridge that looked to be twice her weight, before heading out the door to their SUV parked in the front lot.

He unlocked it and opened the trunk to see what was left to bring up. He groaned when he saw that his daughter had, in fact, been right. The portable coat rack was sticking out the top of a box full of at least fifteen hardcover novels (most likely a "good luck in college" gift from Elijah).

He hoisted it up under his arm and shut the trunk with the other hand, not even bothering to pretend that he was struggling, and headed up the stairs back to his daughter's room. A leggy brunette in a crop top and skinny jeans came up to him.

"Hi, I'm Amanda."

He raised an eyebrow. "Hello, Amanda."

He turned to leave, but she stopped him. "I'm the Residential Assistant for this floor. I'm supposed to meet everyone."

"Oh, sorry love, I'm not attending school here."

He ruthlessly suppressed the laughter that had almost come bubbling up at the blush on the girl's face at his words and started back in the direction of Hope's room.

He grinned wider when he heard the whispered conversation between Amanda and another girl a moment later.

" _Oh my god."_

" _I know, right? It's so unfair though, he doesn't go here."_

" _He's probably helping his sister move in or something. You should ask him out, worst thing to happen is that he says no."_

Klaus decided to tune out the conversation at that point, hoping that it wouldn't go anywhere. He set Hope's box on the foot of her bed.

"Sorry, love. I found it."

"I  _knew_ it. I  _knew_ it wasn't here, Dad. See? I was right."

"Yes, yes, I know you were."

"Can you help me with my bookshelf?" Hope asked impatiently, gesturing to the large pile of boards, hammer, and set of nails piled near her closet.

He inwardly groaned, trying to remember what on earth possessed him to give Ian and Theo the day off.

Oh, right, because they had their own families now.

"When will Mum be here?" Hope asked absentmindedly while folding her shirts and placing them in a drawer.

"In about an hour, most likely," Klaus said.

"Okay. Can you go buy me some things from the drugstore? I didn't want to lug all my bath stuff here. I made a list," Hope said, thrusting a paper at him.

"Why couldn't you have bought these when we went to Target earlier?" He asked, running a hand through his hair.

He hated shopping for things for Hope and Caroline that they put on lists, because they always thought they were being perfectly clear when they weren't. Apparently, when asked to buy  _Neutrogena Clinical Acne Scrub With Exfoliating Beads and Essence of Aloe Vera_ , buying  _Neutrogena Clinical Acne Scrub With Exfoliating Grapefruit Essence_ was not sufficient.

He scanned the list. It seemed rather straightforward to him, so he nodded, quickly finished assembling her shelf, told her that he would be back within the hour, and drove to the nearest drug store.

After spending an unhealthy amount of time in the cosmetics section trying to match the brand name and description on Hope's list to whatever cosmetic he was supposed to purchase (he still hadn't quite gotten the hang of distinguishing between the different sorts of powders and sticks and creams), he headed back to her dorm.

He was almost at her door when he bumped into Amanda again. When he saw the lack of surprise on her face, he realized that the collision was not at all coincidental.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," She said, blushing, "My bad."

He shrugged disinterestedly. "Not a problem."

"Hey," She said when he started to walk away, "I was wondering…since it seems like you're in and out and stuff…if you'd like to have coffee later? Maybe?"

Hope stuck her head out of her door. "Oh my god, Dad. Seriously. You took  _forever_."

His lips twitched at the look on Amanda's face when before he turned to his daughter. "Sorry, love. Make sure those are the correct items, because I have no interest in returning to the drugstore."

Hope quickly dumped the contents of the bag onto her bed and sifted through the items while Klaus turned back to the mortified girl in the hallway.

"As much as I'd love to take you up on the offer, Amanda, my wife—"

"Would reallylike to know why he'd love to take you up on that offer in the first place," Caroline said, cutting him off as she came up behind him and laid a hand on his arm.

He grimaced and turned to her.

"I was trying to let her down gently."

Caroline rolled her eyes before turning to Amanda.

"Sorry, he can be difficult. Trust me, you're happy that you don't have to deal with it," Caroline said, winking at the other girl.

Amanda was still blushing. "Sorry. I'm so sorry," She stuttered, "You just look so young, and…"

Hope stuck her head out of her door. "Yeah. They're vampires," She joked, making Klaus choke on the water bottle Caroline had just handed him.

Caroline wacked him on the back, looking amused at the situation. He glared at her.

"Anyway, are you almost done moving in? Do you still need help?"

Hope shook her head. "No, I should be fine now."

"Great!" Caroline said happily, "We'll meet you for dinner, okay sweetie?"

Hope nodded.

Caroline grabbed Klaus's hand and led him to the parking lot. "Let's go to the hotel," She suggested, sinking into the passenger seat of the car.

Klaus looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he pulled out of the lot. She almost looked too relaxed.

"You do know that that Amanda girl doesn't hold a candle to you," He said matter-of-factly, making Caroline grin.

"Who does?" She asked cheekily.

He smirked. He was glad that she knew that she had nothing to worry about at all. The days of making her jealous on purpose may have been over (because it never worked on her even half as well as it did when she inflicted it on him), but he still occasionally liked seeing her possessiveness shine through.

"I love you," He said quietly, pulling onto the freeway.

"I love you too," She said, smiling, "And Hope could not have had better comedic timing."

"Yes, Elijah raised her right," Klaus joked.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Elijah's hilarious and you know it."

"Not more than I."

"If you say so," Caroline said, patting his arm condescendingly.

He glared at her.

"So," She said brightly, opening the passenger side door, "You know what this means, right?"

"Hmm?"

"Hope is out of the house."

He gave her an almost feral smile. "Ahh, yes. So we'll have the house to ourselves. All the time."

She nodded. "It's too bad that Ian and his family still live—"

"They're fired," Klaus interrupted her jokingly, causing her to give him a half-amused-half-annoyed look.

"Seriously though, as awful as it sounds, I'm kind of excited. She's going off on her own, exploring the world, and we get to sit at home without fear of her bursting into our bedroom at the worst time possible."

"Now you'll be able to wander around naked."

She snorted. "You wish."

"Maybe Amanda would be willing to—"

"If she ever comes anywhere near you in anything less than a nun's habit I will rip her heart out," Caroline said matter-of-factly, as she pulled the keycard out of her pocket when they arrived at their hotel bedroom door.

"That's my girl."

She raised an eyebrow.

"What I meant to say was, 'I apologize Caroline, that was rude of me, and I don't remember this Amanda person I just spoke of. In fact, I will never mention her again, as she doesn't exist.'"

Caroline snorted. "Good save."


	14. Meet The Other Family

" **Meet The Other Family (Part One)" – December 28** **th** **, 2014 – Age 2 ½ years.**

* * *

 

"Do we honestly have to do this?" Klaus asked for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few hours as they parked next to the sidewalk in front of Caroline's old apartment building.

"Yes, Klaus," Caroline said patiently, unbuckling her seatbelt and feeling at the moment like she had ended up with two small children and not one, "Sometimes, we have to do things that we don't want to do."

Klaus just sighed dramatically and slid out of the driver's seat, letting Caroline unbuckle Hope from her car seat in the back and pick her up.

"We're going to meet grandma," Caroline said to Hope, "Can you say 'grandma'?"

Hope looked almost as excited about the situation as her father did, and stayed utterly silent. Caroline nearly laughed at the look of complete disinterest Hope was wearing.

Liz Forbes had been completely unwilling to move out of Caroline's childhood home in Mystic Falls, and since it was no problem for her and Klaus to keep Caroline's old apartment paid for, whenever she and Klaus were to come visit, they would stay there.

Klaus grabbed their suitcases out of the trunk and Caroline balanced Hope on her hip while she dug around her purse for the keys, following Klaus up to her floor and handing them to him so that he could unlock the door for her.

While Klaus put the bags in their bedroom, Caroline immediately walked to the kitchen and started to make a list of the groceries that they would need to make dinner.

Or, rather, the groceries that they would need for  _Klaus_  to make dinner.

When he wandered back in a few minutes later, she pushed the grocery list into his hand and informed him that he was to go shopping and buy everything, and could he please stop by the hospital for blood bags on his way, before immediately turning to head to their bedroom, setting Hope on the floor with a large pile of colored wooden blocks while she unpacked.

They were only staying for a week, but Caroline had, as usual, made sure that they packed every single thing that they could possibly need.

Klaus had sent Ian ahead to toddler-proof the house—thank the lord—and so she didn't have much to do besides put the clothing away. This meant that she had a lot less things to do to put off the inevitable.

She honestly was dreading this almost as much as she was looking forward to it. She had only seen her mother a few times since she moved to New Orleans—more because she was busy than anything else—and this was the first time her mother was meeting Hope, as well as the first time she was seeing Klaus since he'd left Mystic Falls before her graduation. They had stayed home for Christmas with Klaus's siblings, but had decided to come up for New Years, and the dinner with her mother was bound to be a little bit awkward. She also was going to see her friends that lived in Mystic Falls, some of whom she had only seen once since she moved, and she was nervous about that. Matt and Rebekah would be joining them the next day, and she honestly was happy that she'd have some non-Original back-up.

Once she'd finished unpacking she sat next to Hope on the floor staring at her phone and trying to work up the nerve to call her friends. They were having dinner with her mother that night, but she was planning on having dinner with her friends on New Year's Eve, and perhaps spending some time with them before that.

She decided to bite the bullet and picked up her phone, deciding to call the easiest person first.

"Care?" Bonnie said when she picked up the phone.

"Hey, Bon."

"Did you get to your apartment okay?"

"Yeah, totally. I was wondering if you might want to come over later. We can hang out."

"Will Klaus be there?"

Caroline was silent for a moment before responding. "Would that be a problem?"

She could practically see Bonnie in her mind's eye, biting her lip with her eyes to the side, considering the pros and cons. "No, probably not, but I don't think Jeremy would want to go."

"That's fine," Caroline said, secretly happy that he wouldn't be coming and feeling slightly guilty for it.

It wasn't that she and Jeremy didn't get along, but she didn't feel comfortable having him near Hope. He might have gotten over his vampire killing urges for the most part, but Hope wasn't just a vampire, and she didn't want to take any chances.

"I'll be over in an hour?"

"Yeah, sure."

Klaus should be back by then, and she'd text him just to make sure. After checking and being assured that he'd be back by then, she and Hope played with blocks for a bit before Caroline decided that it was time for lunch.

She heard the key in the lock as she was pouring Hope a plate of Cheerios and turned to see Klaus carrying a cooler under one arm and clutching two grocery bags, which he put down next to the fridge, immediately starting to put everything away.

She grinned at the image of the Original Hybrid Villain putting away their groceries. She kind of wanted to laugh, but restrained herself.

"So, this is probably going to sound weird, but since Matt is already 'Uncle Matt' I was wondering if you'd mind allowing some of my friends the title," Caroline asked, slightly nervous for Klaus's reaction.

"Which friends?"

"Bonnie and Stefan," Caroline replied promptly.

She knew she was being slightly unfair, but she had no intention of letting Elena have that kind of role in Hope's life. Bonnie and Klaus still had a lot of tension, but Bonnie was Caroline's very first friend, and she knew that Bonnie would be invested enough to get over her issues if Klaus was willing to. Unfortunately, no matter how many times Damon claimed that Bonnie was the judgy one, Caroline felt strongly that Elena was more self-righteous and judgmental than any of them.

In addition, she had no intention of ever letting Damon near Hope. She purposefully hadn't invited him to dinner—although she had a funny feeling he'd turn up anyway—partly for his own safety (as a favor to Elena) and partly because she didn't want him in Hope's life. Ever.

If Hope became too attached to Elena, Damon would be a package deal, and unlike the rest of her friends, she didn't think Elena was worth having to deal with him.

Tyler was a no-brainer, frankly. They were friends, but that didn't mean that she was going to let him have that much of a connection to Hope, especially since he probably didn't want one anyway. She was still debating whether he should come to dinner, really. She didn't want to un-invite him at the last second (because, hello,  _so_ rude), but at the same time, she wasn't sure that she could keep both him and Klaus in check at once.

She'd rather that her year didn't start with a bloodbath.

"I'm willing to allow Stefan and Bonnie a place in Hope's life."

Caroline gave him a brilliant smile, and he returned it.

There was a knock on the door, and Caroline smiled brightly at Klaus before placing the plate in front of Hope on her high chair and opening the door for Bonnie, who she immediately pulled into a hug. "Oh my gosh! It's so great to see you!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I haven't called much," Caroline said sheepishly.

Bonnie shrugged. "You've been busy," she said, gesturing towards Hope.

Both of them looked at Klaus, who seemed to be trying to subtly leave the room. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. "Hello, Bonnie."

Bonnie shot him a smirk. "Klaus."

"Mama!" Hope shouted, "Mama, all done!"

Caroline immediately turned around to see Hope in the process of knocking Cheerios off of her tray and immediately sped over. "Hope, don't throw."

Hope immediately dropped the Cheerios, and Caroline smiled.

"I don't understand how you get her to listen," Klaus mumbled, making Caroline laugh.

Hope mostly followed Caroline's directions, with some exceptions. However, she pointedly ignored most of Klaus's. Caroline thought it was incredibly funny that Hope refused to follow orders of the most powerful supernatural being on Earth, and yet listened to her.

Bonnie was watching Caroline scoop all of the cereal into the compost bin in the sink (if Caroline was going to live forever, she would make damned sure that she did her part to make sure that they had a world to live in), and she slowly approached Hope, who looked at her curiously, but didn't say anything.

"This is Auntie Bonnie. Can you say 'hi'?"

Hope gave Bonnie a curious look before reaching a hand out. Caroline and Klaus shot each other a look as Bonnie took it, before flinching, and then smiling.

"She wanted to read me," Bonnie explained, "It's instinctive, she probably doesn't know why she did it."

Hope seemed to feel much more comfortable now. "Auntie Bonnie," She said slowly.

Caroline gave her daughter a huge smile, which Hope returned.

"C'mon, Bon, let's go watch a movie."

**XXX**

By the time Caroline hugged Bonnie goodbye around five, the smells from the kitchen were mouthwatering. "That smells good," She said, walking into the kitchen, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You can set the table," He said, making her laugh at his clear attempt to make her feel useful without having her actually do anything.

She did it anyway, carefully making sure that the silverware matched and the napkins and tablecloth didn't clash or have spots. She saw Klaus smiling exasperatedly at her once or twice as she changed the napkins or re-arranged the coasters for the food.

"I'm sure it will look nice no matter what you do with it," He said as she changed the kind of wine glasses for the third time.

"Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"About me meeting your mother while you aren't in danger of being killed, you mean?"

She shrugged apologetically. "It's not that I don't want you to, I just…I want her to approve."

"Well, not that I really have any experience with mothers who actually approve of my behavior, or me in general, I don't really have much advice for you. I can, however, say that I will be on my best behavior, and that worst comes to worst, she'll most likely enjoy spending time with Hope."

"I hope so."

Klaus sighed and put the sauce-covered wooden spoon down on the paper towel resting on the counter (while Caroline was responsible for clean-up, he generally tried to make it easier on her) and pulled her into a warm hug.

"It'll be fine, I promise."

She nodded, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms.

"Can you be done worrying now? I need to finish cooking."

She scoffed and pulled back. "You ruined the moment."

He smirked. "I apologize."

"Of course you do," Caroline mumbled, disentangling herself and going over to Hope, who was sitting at the tiny table they'd bought for her to play on. She was surrounded by crayons and paper, and seemed to be doodling something. As they'd discovered early, Hope was always a few months ahead in motor skills, which meant that she was already able to draw in a circular motion. Caroline walked over to sit on the floor next to her.

"That's pretty," She complimented, looking at Hope's scribble.

"Thank."

"Thank _s_ ," Caroline corrected.

Hope shot her an annoyed look that Caroline never failed to smile at, as Klaus made the very same expression whenever he was mildly irritated, and returned to her scribbling. The doorbell rang. "Can you get that?" Klaus said at a normal speaking level from the kitchen, knowing that she'd hear it.

She sighed and opened the door to let her mother in. "Hi, Mom."

"It's good to see you," Liz said warmly, giving Caroline a hug.

Caroline felt movement next to her leg and saw that Hope had come to investigate what was going on. "Hope, this is Grandma. Can you say 'hi'?"

"Hi," Hope said shortly before toddling off to her table again.

Liz grinned. "If I didn't know better I'd say she had your genes. She is remarkably like you as a toddler."

Caroline raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

"You weren't very nice to strangers. Once you took a liking to them though, you wouldn't stop talking."

"I'm not surprised by that at all," Klaus said, poking his head out from the kitchen and smirking at her.

"Shut up," Caroline mumbled.

"Hello, Liz."

Caroline didn't miss the underlying message, which was that Klaus considered himself to be her mother's equal, and had no doubt that her mother had also picked up on it. Honestly, Caroline wasn't surprised in the least. As far as Klaus was concerned, Liz was over nine-hundred years younger than him, and she doubted that he'd be treating her any other way.

"Can I get you anything?" Caroline asked politely, making Liz smile.

"No. I'm fine until dinner."

"It should only be another quarter of an hour," Klaus said, turning to wander back into the kitchen.

Liz immediately walked over to the table where Hope was doodling. "What are you drawing?"

Hope gave her a confused why-are-you-talking-to-me glance before answering. "Lines."

Caroline held back a laugh at Hope's answer.

"You're drawing lines?" Liz asked, also looking amused.

Hope nodded, her brow furrowed as she concentrated very hard on her drawing.

Caroline sat down beside her mother and they chatted about what had been going on in town while occasionally oo-ing and ahh-ing at Hope's scribbles.

She heard Klaus turn the oven off and the clink of plates. "Dinner's ready," She said.

Liz didn't ask how she knew, probably figuring it was 'one of her vampire things', and she stood up, rubbing her back a little bit.

"Time for dinner," Caroline said again to Hope, who gave her a disinterested look.

"No."

"Hope, you need to take a break from drawing now."

"No."

Caroline sighed and simply reached down and plucked Hope out of her chair, who immediately started flailing around in Caroline's arms. She calmly deposited Hope in her high chair without much trouble and set some food in front of her in a bowl. Hope glared at her and Caroline raised an eyebrow as she took her place at the table, spooning herself some pasta.

"So, how is everything now that Mystic Falls is inaccessible?" Klaus asked awkwardly.

"It's fine. Not much to do. How's New Orleans? I've heard a lot from Caroline about Hope, but not much about the city."

"Well, it's definitely got a lot of options for Caroline to explore in terms of things to do. Running the supernatural part of the city is a full-time job for me, really. We've tried to make the city safer, for Hope's sake, mostly, and that involved a lot of meetings and diplomacy. It's been going well."

Liz nodded. "That's good to hear."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Liz spoke again. "Are you planning on going back to college, Caroline?"

Caroline stopped cutting up her pasta and looked up. Her mom didn't look judgmental, exactly, but Caroline knew that she wasn't particularly in favor of Caroline staying home with Hope.

She had been thinking about it, but hadn't really broached the topic with Klaus. "Umm…Well, I've thought about it. I don't know what the plan is right now," She said, rather lamely.

"Are you sure?" Liz asked, shooting Klaus a suspicious look.

Having clearly realized that Liz was implying that he was preventing Caroline from doing things she wanted to do, he jumped in. "I offered to pay for her tuition but she said that she wanted to take a break for now. I hadn't heard anything about it since we had the conversation, but I am confident that if she wants to do it, she can. I also have no objections to her not pursuing that life path. She has eternity to do whatever she wishes, and if she wishes to spend it at home with Hope to see her grow up, that is her choice."

"And what if she just doesn't want charity?" Liz asked, frowning.

Caroline realized that her mother knew her too well. In most cases she would consider it charity. She was not a fan of getting things that she hadn't earned. It felt less meaningful. However, this was not one of those times, both because she didn't feel like she was being a burden—she was almost positive that Klaus could pay for her to go to college more than a hundred times over—and because he'd made it clear that as Hope's mother she was entitled to spend his money just as everyone else in the family, and pointed out that Rebekah probably spent three times a private college's tuition in as many months on clothes and "other trivial things."

She still wasn't a huge fan of it, but she felt a lot more comfortable with it than she might have otherwise, especially after Klaus had discreetly pointed out that using her family's finances would make her mother's quality of living significantly less comfortable.

"It's not charity," He said immediately.

Liz glanced at her, as though checking whether Caroline agreed.

"I will go to college when I'm ready," Caroline assured her, "Probably in a year or so, once Hope is in pre-school."

Liz nodded slowly. "I just remember you talking non-stop about your plans when you were a kid," She said, slightly wistfully.

Caroline realized that her mom might have been more affected by her moving out than she'd initially thought. It hadn't occurred to her that her mom might miss her, especially since they had hardly ever talked other than to fight when she'd been human.

"What did she talk about?" Klaus asked curiously, a small smirk on his lips.

Caroline suddenly had a bad feeling about where this was going. She most definitely did  _not_ want to get into embarrassing childhood memory territory. She'd been lucky so far in that Liz had never cared enough nor had enough time to meet her boyfriends.

Unfortunately, she did now.

"Mom…" She said slowly, her voice a low warning.

"She had several of them, actually. My favorite was when she decided that she wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. She was about twelve I think."

"Not the President?" Klaus joked.

"That's what I said, actually. She told me that she'd rather make sure people followed the rules than make them in the first place, because then she'd have a way to change them."

"Yeah, I was an incredibly bossy and rule-obsessed child," She mumbled, "You're really selling me."

"I think it's rather sweet," He said, giving her a sincere look, "And it makes sense, too. You had big plans when you were a child just as you do now."

Liz smiled. "Having 'big plans' is a slight understatement. When she was seven she came home with a note from her teacher that said that she got in trouble at recess for being bossy. Her father told me that if she tried she could probably rule the world."

Klaus smirked. "Well, he must have been able to see the future."

Caroline snorted. "I do not rule the world."

"The offer's still open," He said, smirking at her.

She rolled her eyes and gave her mother an exasperated look. "Do you  _see_ what I have to deal with, here?"

Liz's lips twitched. "I don't know, it sounds like he's attempting to make your childhood wish of being a princess come true."

"A Queen," Klaus corrected.

She could tell that they were both having entirely too much fun embarrassing her.

"Well, she wanted to be a princess first, I think. But then she realized that she could wear pretty dresses without being a princess and decided that she wanted to be the CEO of a bakery. I came home one day when she was about six and I found the kitchen a total mess with about six batches of cookies that varied in their edibleness."

Caroline blushed, and Klaus shot her a small smile. "Mom…"

"I think you could be a Queen and a CEO of a bakery at the same time, Caroline. I don't see the issue."

"First of all, I was six. Second of all, owning a bakery in New Orleans sounds completely undoable. There are already too many good ones, there would be too much competition. And if I did open a bakery you would  _not_ be allowed to kill my competition," She added hastily at the end, making him smile.

"See? Already successfully ordering me around," He said, looking at her fondly, "Clearly 'Queen material'."

"Did you just use  _air quotes_?"

"Queen Mommy?" Hope piped up from her high chair.

Klaus and Liz started laughing and Caroline let her face drop in her hands.

She didn't know why she worried about her mother and Klaus getting along. It seemed that they got along  _way_ too well for her tastes.

"Yes, I do like the sound of Queen Caroline," Klaus said slyly.

She groaned.

 


	15. Queen

**"Queen" - January 3rd, 2015 - Age 2.5**

* * *

 

Caroline's head snapped towards the front door when she heard the doorbell ring, and she got up to answer it.

"I've got it Theo, no worries," She said over her shoulder to the hybrid, before opening the door.

There was a blonde standing on the doorstep, who frowned at Caroline and started to come in. Caroline blocked the doorway. "Um, can I help you?" She asked, with hard eyes at the girl who seemed to think that she owned the place, though she tried to keep her voice pleasant.

"I'm Camille," The other girl said shortly, "I'm here to speak to Klaus."

Caroline blinked, but realized that Camille was human. She gave her a quick once over, checking for weapons before turning around.

"Theo?" She called.

Theo poked his head in.

"Do you know her?" Caroline asked, standing to the side.

"Yes, Miss Caroline. Hello, Miss O'Connell, it's good to see you again," He said to Camille, though he didn't actually sound all that happy to see her.

 _O'Connell…_ She felt like she'd heard the name before. She suddenly remembered that Rebekah had once told her about a girl that Klaus had taken a liking to in New Orleans. She hadn't given it much thought at the time, and frankly she still didn't care all that much. Klaus loved her, after all, and there was no point in fretting about it.

Of course, Camille's entitled attitude was a different matter entirely.

"I apologize for my less-than-warm greeting, then. Would you like to come in?" Caroline asked, remembering her manners, but still wary of the girl.

Camille nodded and thanked her, walking past her to the foyer.

"Klaus is out right now, but he should be back in a few minutes. Can I get you anything while you wait? Water or juice?" Caroline asked, playing the hostess.

There was a flash of confusion and then realization on Camille's face before she masked it. "Yes, water would be nice," She said, a tad too dismissively for Caroline's taste.

Caroline raised an eyebrow, but led her to the dining room next to the kitchen where she'd been feeding Hope some cereal and poured her a glass of water, setting it in front of the girl and clearing Hope's bowl away.

She decided not to ask why Camille was there—not wanting to get into some kind of political situation if that's what she was there for—and excused herself to take Hope up to her room. When she came back, after asking Theo to look after Hope for a bit, she poured herself some juice and sat next to Camille, deciding to make small talk.

"I'm so sorry for not introducing myself. My name is Caroline," She said, giving Camille a pageant smile.

"It's nice to meet you Caroline. Um, can I ask a question?"

"Of course, although I can't guarantee I'll have an answer."

"Was that Hope? Klaus and Hayley's baby, I mean?"

Caroline decided to ignore the reference to Hope's biological mother. "Yes."

"I thought she died."

"She was put in a safehouse for her own safety. I took care of her with Rebekah."

Camille nodded slowly. "When did she come back?"

"A year or so ago."

"Do people know?"

Well, they hadn't exactly shouted it from the rooftops or anything, but anyone who discovered Hope's existence was dealt with casually. Klaus's theory seemed to be that if they treated Hope's existence as an obvious fact that didn't need to be mentioned, people wouldn't think much of it, and therefore she would be safer.

Caroline wasn't sure if she agreed, but was willing to go along with it.

So, how to deal with Camille. If Klaus hadn't outright told her, that meant that either she wasn't significant enough in his life to go out of his way to inform her (quite likely) or that she just didn't come around enough to notice (also quite likely). It was probably a bit of both.

"Some people do," Caroline said slowly, "Why, did no one tell you?"

Camille's mouth was pressed in a thin line before she moved the conversation in a slightly different direction. "So, you've known the Original family for awhile, I guess? I can't see Klaus trusting anyone with his child."

Caroline thought that this girl was being rather nosey, but decided to ignore it, and laughed convincingly. "He wouldn't trust just anyone, that's definitely true. I've known them for a few years."

"'A few years' like a hundred?" Camille asked, clearly thinking that Caroline was much older than she was.

"A few years like five," Caroline corrected.

"So you're a hybrid?"

Caroline laughed again, feeling a bit attacked. "No. Just a vampire."

"But…He would never trust anyone he knew for that long that wasn't sired to him. He has  _major_ trust issues," Camille said slowly.

Caroline's gut feeling of not liking this girl came back much more intensely. "I'm a special case, I guess, and if you knew him at all, which you clearly don't, you'd know that he is much more complicated than being summed up in 'trust issues.'"

"I think I know him pretty well," Camille said quietly, "I've known him for almost as long as you have, and I'm a psychology major, and while I don't understand why he trusts you, no offense, or anything," Caroline snorted, "You must be special for him to trust you to be live-in care for Hope when there's no sire bond."

"Excuse me?" Caroline asked in a dangerously quiet and cold voice.

It took a lot of willpower to resist the urge to ask if Camille knew who she was.

Similarly to Hope's existence, her relationship with Klaus wasn't exactly advertised. They went out together often, and she was sure that people suspected, if not knew, but they hadn't made a point of informing people.

After all, what was he supposed to say? " _Hello, this is the love of my life, Caroline, she's a baby vampire and can't protect herself against most older supernatural creatures; if you hurt her I'll tear out your kidneys and feed them to you"?_

"What?" Camille asked, clearly confused at Caroline's reaction.

So she didn't know.

"Did you just say 'live-in care'?"

"Well, that's what you are, aren't you?"

_How stupid was this girl? Good lord…_

"I'm her mother," Caroline said, her voice containing even more bite to it.

"No, you're not. I mean, Hayley died, but she's still Hope's mother."

Who did this girl think she was, exactly? Klaus clearly didn't care for her. In fact, once she and Rebekah had developed their friendship to the point of being extremely close, Rebekah had gotten upset one night and told Caroline a long story about her relationship with Marcel and how Camille was "all of your idiot friend Elena's worst qualities wrapped up in a package of a less pretty and more annoying version of you."

Needless to say, though Caroline had gone into this conversation hoping for the best, Rebekah was being proven right more and more with each word falling out of this girl's mouth.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what makes you think you have the right to come in here and pretend that you know everything about our family life, but—"

" _Family_ life?" Camille asked, an almost-cruel laugh coming out of her mouth, "Klaus doesn't care about anyone but his siblings, Hayley, and me. You're clearly just a pawn to him."

_Okay. Nope. Done being nice._

She took a deep breath, trying to resist the urge to tear this girl's throat out in case she was important in some way, and kept her voice low.

"He didn't care about Hayley, he cared about Hope, who happened to be in Hayley's womb at the time. And my guess is that he certainly doesn't care about you. You are clearly a sad excuse for a replacement for  _me_. I'm sure that if he looked at your blonde-haired-blue-eyed face he saw a lesser copy of  _me._  And that whenever you spoke like this, without a care for your own safety, spouting what  _you_ think are truths about Klaus, which, by the way, are completely and utterly  _wrong,_ he saw a brash, self-righteous girl with no sense of self-preservation, a pitiful and inferior imitation of  _honesty_ and  _compassion,_ which reminded him of  _me._ "

"Wow, and you think  _I'm_ full of myself?" Camille asked, her voice matching Caroline's angry tone, "Do you hear yourself right now? You think he cares about you, but obviously you're on something. He's using you, just like he does everybody else. You're nothing but a pawn in his game. Completely expendable. Collateral damage."

Caroline's next words were venomous and blunt, but almost a whisper.

"I think that what you're doing right now, Miss Psychology Major, is what you would call 'projecting.' And I'm not a pawn in his game. I'm the fucking Queen. Now, I don't care who you think you are, or what you think you're doing here, but I want you to  _get out_."

Camille sent a 'help-me' glance to someone over Caroline's shoulder, and Caroline turned to see Klaus leaning against the doorway, apparently having been watching their argument.

A small, wicked smile was stretched across Klaus's face, and he directed it at Camille. "Get out."

"Um,  _what_?"

"You're incredibly lucky that you aren't dead right now with the way you spoke to her, and the only reason for that is Marcel. If you're not out of New Orleans by midnight, I will kill you," Klaus said uncaringly, as though discussing the weather.

"But—"

"That's five seconds of time you've lost, and since you need to tie up quite a few loose ends, I advise that you do not waste anymore time," Klaus said coldly.

Camille looked both crushed and angry, and if the other girl hadn't been such a bitch, Caroline would have felt sorry for her. Unfortunately, she had, and Caroline felt nothing but annoyed as she watched the blonde stomp out of the room.

"Ugh,  _that_ was Camille?"

Klaus raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly. "You've heard of her from Rebekah, I assume?"

Caroline snorted. "Yep. I didn't believe her, but I think I owe Rebekah an apology now. How did you  _stand_ her?"

"If you squint  _really_ hard and look at her from the back, she looks like a less stunning version of you."

"You can stop trying to dig yourself out of a hole, you're not in one," Caroline said tiredly, running a hand through her hair, "Although, if you really want to make it up to me we're out of blood bags."

"I'll send someone. Either way, about being Queen—"

"I have a few conditions," Caroline said, immediately interrupting him.

"Of course you do," He said, half-fondly-half-exasperatedly.

"No titles unless absolutely necessary— _my_ definition of necessary, by the way, not yours—I don't want to walk around with people calling me Queen Caroline in public, that's tacky. No crowns, either. I  _will_ order people around, and you  _will_  deal with it."

"I agree," He said immediately.

"Excellent," She said happily, clasping her hands together, "Anyway, we have that stupid New Year's thing at Marcel's tonight, right? I want a dress."

"I assume that you want to look Princess-Grace-of-Monaco hot?" He teased, dodging the playful punch she aimed at his shoulder.

She stuck her tongue out at him.


	16. Kenley

" **Kenley"—November 17** **th** **, 2029—age 17**

* * *

 

"Can you pass the salt, Mrs. M?" Kenley asked.

Caroline smiled slightly at the title and obligingly handed Kenley the salt shaker. Though she and Klaus hadn't gotten married—and most likely never would—she hadn't stopped Hope's friends from assuming, especially since anyone would think that her daylight ring was a wedding band.

Klaus still had a smug smirk on his face whenever it happened as well, and it was a constant battle for Caroline not to roll her eyes or hit him every time.

After dinner, the girls rose from the table and began to walk upstairs. Caroline had been concerned when she saw the heels Kenley was wearing earlier, but hadn't commented. Hope's friend was tall, beautiful, and naturally clumsy. Frankly, Caroline was still slightly amazed every time she saw her that Kenley hadn't had a shoe (or sidewalk crack, tree root, etc.) related accident.

She heard a screech and a thump from the dining room and immediately sped out to see what was wrong, Klaus on her heels.

She clearly had either invoked some horrible karmic incident, or was clairvoyant.

Kenley was laying on her back on the hardwood floor, completely still. Hope was kneeling next to her friend, her breath coming in short gasps.

"Move," Caroline ordered, kneeling next to Kenley and feeling frantically for a pulse, "Hope, call 911."

Hope didn't move, but sat motionless next to her friend.

"We could always just heal her," Klaus said quietly, even as he withdrew his phone from his pocket.

Neither of them noticed Hope biting her lip and looking down guiltily at her friend.

Klaus and Caroline only turned around when they heard a sharp breath from behind them. "Hope? What's going on?" Kenley asked, clearly terrified out of her mind, "What happened?"

Hope bit her lip. "Um, so…You fell down the stairs. Got knocked out."

Kenley frowned. "But I woke up."

Hope nodded.

"I don't feel any different, well, nothing hurts, at least," Kenley said, frowning, "You'd think that I'd have a headache."

Hope shrugged, a nervous smile on her face. "You'd think."

Kenley shot her a suspicious look before looking at Caroline and Klaus, and then frowning. "What's that noise?"

Caroline and Klaus exchanged a look. "What noise?" Caroline asked, gently.

"There's this…This whistling noise. It's coming from the kitchen."

Caroline frowned. There was, indeed, a faint whistling noise from the kitchen. A noise that Kenley shouldn't be able to hear unless…

Caroline whirled to look at her daughter. "Hope. Explain."

Hope shot her mother a guilty look. "I may or may not have stolen some of Matt's capsules and made Ken's mum think that she had a vitamin deficiency…"

Of course…the capsules…

Rebekah—smart woman that she was—had managed to somehow make gel capsules with her blood in them, which Matt would take every morning. The idea had started after Hope had begun driving. Rebekah didn't want to take any chances.

Of course, by then Matt had decided that he wanted to turn, so they didn't get much use, but they somehow got misplaced.

Now, Caroline knew where they had gone.

Kenley was looking between Hope and Caroline, looking more confused by the second.

"Mrs. M, what's going on?" She asked, "And why am I so…" She struggled to find the right word.

"Hungry?" Klaus suggested dryly.

Kenley nodded.

"Let's go get settled in the living room, you two" Caroline said, rubbing her eyes with her palms exasperatedly, "Klaus, I think Kenley's parents just won a sweepstakes for a week-long vacation."

Klaus rolled his eyes at Caroline's suggestion-that-was-actually-an-order. "Of course, love. I'll take care of it."

Kenley frowned. "What do you mean you 'think they just won a sweepstakes'?"

"C'mon, let's sit down," Caroline said, leading the girls to the living room and directing Kenley to one of the couches.

"So. What do you know about vampires?" Caroline asked, smoothing her skirt over her knees.

"Excuse me?" Kenley asked, raising her eyebrows.

Caroline repeated her question and Kenley frowned. "You're joking, right?"

Caroline slowly shook her head, and gave her daughter's friend a succinct definition of vampires. At Kenley's wide-eyed stare, she let her vampire features come out.

Kenley screamed.

"Shhh, hey, calm down, you're okay," Caroline soothed, gripping Kenley gently by the shoulders, "I won't hurt you. What you're feeling is perfectly normal. You're just in transition."

"…In transition?" Kenley asked slowly, her eyes still wide.

"Yes. You have a choice. You can become a vampire or die," Caroline said bluntly.

"That's not much of a choice," Kenley mumbled, "How did this happen anyway?"

"You had vampire blood in you when you fell down the stairs. You would have died if you hadn't had it."

Kenley's eyes went wide. "Um. What? How did that happen?"

"I've been giving it to you. Just in case," Hope said quietly.

Kenley sent her friend a betrayed look, and Hope's lip quivered. "I can't lose you, okay? You're my best friend, and...We've been through everything together."

"Oh, yeah, and so now you want us to become  _vampires_ together? Or something?"

Hope shrugged. "Better that than you being dead."

Kenley turned to Caroline. "I can't believe that this is happening."

"Yeah, well, I didn't have anyone to explain it to me when I was transitioning," Caroline said, shrugging, "At least you have people to help you. If you decide to turn, of course. You do have the choice, Kenley."

Caroline raised an eyebrow to her daughter's friend, as though challenging her to turn it down, and resisted the urge to smile as Kenley's jaw set. "I'll turn."

Hope's face lit up in a giant smile, and Caroline turned to her daughter. "Go get a blood bag from the kitchen," She said, and added to Hope's retreating back, "And call your Aunt Bonnie and tell her to come over."

Caroline stood up and closed the curtains in the room. "Why are you closing the curtains?"

"Because you'll get hurt by sunlight."

"You go out in the sun all the time."

Caroline nodded. "I have a daylight ring. Hope's going to call my friend Bonnie to make one for you, but I don't know how long that'll take."

"A daylight ring?'

Caroline held up her hand to show Kenley.

"I thought that was your wedding ring."

Caroline smiled slightly. "Nope. Klaus isn't fond of human traditions."

"Wait, if you're a vampire, how did you…like…get pregnant?"

"I didn't."

"So, wait, is she adopted?"

Caroline smiled slightly. "It's a long story, but Klaus is her biological father."

"But he's a vampire."

"He's also a werewolf."

Kenley just frowned. "No offense, or anything, but this is really Twilight."

"That's what I said when I found out, actually," Caroline said, smiling slightly, trying to lighten the mood.

"So Hope's not a vampire?"

"Not yet," Hope said, coming back in from the kitchen, a blood bag in her hand, which she shoved at Kenley, who had grown the veins on her eyes and looked terrified of herself, shrinking back from Hope's outstretched hand.

Caroline snatched the blood bag from her daughter before Kenley could take it and calmly uncapped it. "All right, Kenley, I want you to take a sip and hand it back to me. Can you do that?"

Kenley's hand was shaking as she took the blood bag out of Caroline's hand, and as soon as her lips latched onto it she started draining it. Caroline waited until it was halfway empty and wrestled it out of Kenley's grip.

Kenley froze as her features returned to normal and then squeaked. "What just…Did I…I couldn't stop."

Caroline nodded sympathetically. "I know. I want you to take some deep breaths, okay? We'll take them together. In…1, 2, 3….Out 1, 2, 3…"

She helped Kenley with breathing exercises until she felt that she was calm again. "All right, so, I'm going to give you the blood bag and I want you to concentrate on keeping your breathing steady, and only taking a few sips, all right?"

Kenley nodded, and Caroline held out the blood bag again.

Kenley took it, breathing slowly and took a few sips before practically throwing it in Caroline's face. Caroline caught it and smiled. "Good job. We'll wait for Bonnie to come by and give you a daylight ring, okay? And then we'll talk some more."

"Speaking of, when are Dad and Aunt Bonnie going to be back?"

"Speaking of…?" Caroline asked.

"Well, if Aunt Bonnie's coming here anyway, she can make me a daylight ring, too. And I want some of his blood."

"Why?" Caroline asked irritably.

"I want to transition."

"Excuse me?"

Hope repeated herself, and Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose. "Seriously?"

"I want to do it together," Hope said.

Caroline took a deep breath. "Sweetie, I know that it sounds like a very tempting idea to you, but I don't think that we can deal with two newborn vampires at once, especially since once you turn you'll be so strong that you'll need to stay right next to your Dad until you get the hang of it."

The front door opened and Klaus made his way back into the living room. Hope immediately shot up to talk to him. "Dad! Dad, can I turn with Kenley? Please?"

Klaus shrugged. "I don't see why no—" He said before quickly changing gears at the look on Caroline's face, "Actually, no sweetheart, I don't think that's a good idea."

"So, wait, Mrs. M—"

"Caroline."

"What?"

"Call me Caroline."

"Okay…Caroline…So, question…What will I tell my parents? When they get back from wherever you sent them, I mean."

Caroline bit her lip, trying to think of how to word her answer. "Well, I don't think you should stay with your parents until you're absolutely sure that you can control your blood lust. I don't want you to kill your parents by accident."

Kenley looked horrified. "But I would never—"

"Yeah, sweetie, you say that now, but it's an entirely different thing when you actually experience it."

Kenley's eyes filled with tears, and Caroline immediately inwardly cringed. She'd forgotten about the enhanced emotions, having now lived with them for almost twenty years, and she had to remind herself that Kenley was experiencing incredibly intense mood swings.

She turned back to ask Klaus whether he could give Kenley a longer lecture on vampire powers and realized that he and Hope were having a quiet argument.

"No, absolutely not," He was saying.

"But Daddy…"

"No."

"Why can't I?"

"Because your Mum doesn't want you to," He responded promptly, making the excuse-in-question roll her eyes.

"I told you why already, Hope. Because I don't think we can handle two newborns at once, especially when one is you."

Hope pouted, and Caroline sighed.

"Klaus, can you answer all of Kenley's questions please? I need to make sure everything's set for her to stay here."

"Of course, love."

Caroline quickly made her way to Ian's part of the house and knocked on the door to the hallway that led to his rooms.

His daughter opened it a crack and peered out before opening it more fully.

"Hi, Miss Caroline."

"Hey Emmy. I need to speak with your Dad, can you get him for me?"

Emmy nodded, but didn't move an inch. "Dad!" She screamed from the doorway, making Caroline pinch the bridge of her nose, "Miss Caroline's here."

Ian sped over from farther into the wing and told Emmy to go back to whatever she'd been doing. "Hello, Caroline."

It had taken Caroline years to make Ian not address her with any titles in private, though he still did it when Klaus was around.

"Hey. I need you to set up a guest room for Kenley. She'll be staying here for awhile."

Ian nodded. "The one next to Hope's?"

"Yeah, that would probably be good. I'll have her stop by her house later and get some clothes. Oh, actually, maybe I could take her shopping. That might be a good restraint exercise."

Ian gave her a confused glance before he understood. "Is she in transition?"

"Yep," Caroline said, her voice suddenly sour.

It wasn't that she didn't like Kenley, or didn't think Kenley would make a good vampire. She just knew exactly how it felt to transition at seventeen and find out that your friends had kept a huge part of their lives from you. When Kenley got over the shock she'd probably feel betrayed and angry, and Caroline wanted to manage that as well as possible.

Once Ian was off to prepare things, she wandered back into the living room and stuck her head in, immediately realizing they were discussing compulsion.

"Anything I want?" Kenley was asking, raising an eyebrow.

Klaus nodded. "However, I recommend that you use it responsibly."

"Can a vampire compel another vampire?"

"My siblings and I can. Other than that, no."

"How does it feel to be compelled?" Kenley asked curiously.

"I don't know, as it's never happened to me," Klaus said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"It feels terrifying and wrong, because you know what's happening, but you can't stop it," Caroline said quietly, entering the room fully and sitting next to Klaus.

"Can…Can you do it? Just so I can see what it feels like?"

Klaus and Caroline exchanged a look.

"Are you sure?" Caroline asked hesitantly, not quite understanding what the purpose would be.

"I think it's happened before. I remember…things."

Caroline's eyebrows rose in alarm. "What kinds of things?" She asked quickly.

"This one time…someone…a man…he told me to hold still and then he drank from me…and then he told me to forget. I remember, it was…I couldn't move."

Caroline nodded. "That would be compulsion, yes."

Kenley narrowed her eyes. "I'm never going to do that to someone."

"There will be times when blood bags aren't available," Caroline said quietly, "When that happens, you'll need to know how to feed without hurting someone."

"How would I do that? I feel like there isn't a way to not hurt someone when you have to make them sit still and then like, bite them and suck their blood."

"Tell them not to be scared, feed them your blood so that they heal, and then make them forget."

"What if they die before the blood's out of their system?"

"Then they become a vampire."

Kenley frowned. "That doesn't sound very safe."

"It's not."

"But you might have to do it to survive," Klaus jumped in.

Kenley nodded numbly. There was a knock on the door and Hope jumped up to answer it, coming back a moment later with Bonnie, who took a seat on the couch. Caroline put a calming hand on Kenley's arm as she realized that the girl was trying very hard not to move towards Bonnie.

Caroline admired her restraint. She was almost as good as Caroline was when she transitioned.

"I had to stop by a shop to get a ring," Bonnie said apologetically before setting it in front of Kenley, "Sorry, I didn't know what kind of jewelry you liked, so I tried to pick something that would go with almost everything."

Kenley shrugged, picking up the ring to inspect it. "It's fine. Thanks."

Once Bonnie had finished and left again to go back to work, Caroline took Kenley's hand. "I know that this is overwhelming for you, but we'll try to help you make the transition as easy as possible, okay?"

Kenley bit her lip and nodded.

"I'll call in to the school and tell them that you'll be out for a few days, okay?"

"What if I kill someone?" Kenley asked quietly.

Caroline knew that she'd been trying to work up the nerve to ask the question for the past hour, and she smiled softly, pulling Kenley into a hug. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The point is, you'll be fine. We'll take care of you no matter what happens, okay? You're family."

Kenley buried her face in Caroline's shoulder and burst into sobs, the reality of the situation suddenly hitting her. Caroline rocked the girl back and forth, making comforting sounds and rubbing her back.

Klaus looked incredibly uncomfortable, and Caroline flicked her eyes towards the door, indicating that he could go. After he'd left the room, Hope spoke, her voice annoyingly cheerful.

"Well, good news, you can wear white pants all month if you want and not worry about bleeding all over them."

Kenley choked out a watery laugh. "Yeah. I guess so."


	17. A Difference of Opinions

**"A Difference of Opinions" – February 2nd, 2029 – Age 16**

* * *

 

"Hope, elbows off the table."

"Sorry Mum," Hope said, pulling her arms off the table and then stabbing her pea with her fork, glaring at it as though it had personally offended her.

"What's wrong, love?"

"I had a fight with Sam today."

"Oh, that's unfortunate," Klaus said, clearly trying hard not to sound too happy.

"I'm sorry," Caroline said sympathetically, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Well, just so you know, fights are healthy in a relationship as long as you argue in a healthy way. It's how you grow from fights that make your relationship work."

Hope snorted. "Yeah, right. How do you know? You guys never fight."

Caroline and Klaus exchanged a look. "Of course we do," Klaus said, "We just try very hard to not argue in front of you."

"Yeah, right. You're practically the same person. You agree on everything."

"No. We really don't," Caroline said, trying very hard not to laugh.

"Look, I know you're just trying to make me feel better, but I don't want to talk about it. May I please be excused?"

"Of course, love."

Once Hope had made it up the stairs, Klaus turned to Caroline. "She thinks that we don't have arguments?"

XXX

" _No, Caroline. I will not allow it."_

" _Won't allow what? Hope meeting kids her own age? You can't leave her locked up in the mansion forever, Klaus. She's five. She'll get lonely, and have no social skills, and have no idea how to relate to people."_

" _It's too dangerous."_

" _Theo would be on school grounds the entire time."_

" _No."_

" _Well then how is she going to learn? And meet other kids?"_

" _We'll hire tutors."_

" _Okay. That's problem one. How about meeting other kids?"_

_Klaus remained silent for a moment. "We can enroll her in extra-curricular activities."_

" _I was already going to do that."_

" _Well then, what's the problem?"_

_Caroline glared at him._

" _Look, homeschooling is fine for some kids, and I understand that, but Hope needs to learn how to relate to others. She's like you, she hates people, and you haven't exactly been setting the standard for good behavior."_

_Klaus snorted. "So you're saying that she should go to school so that she doesn't end up like me?"_

" _No, that's not what I meant. I'm saying she should go to school so that she doesn't end up unable to relate to people."_

" _So like me, then."_

" _You can relate to people just fine," Caroline argued, rolling her eyes._

" _Yes, and whose fault is that, exactly? If I hadn't been completely emotionally unavailable, I never would have fallen in love with you."_

_She snorted. "Flattery will not make me change my mind, Klaus."_

_They held each other's gaze for a few minutes before Klaus sighed and glared at her._

" _All right, you win. However, she must be within Theo's vision at all times."_

" _Obviously."_

" _And if anything goes wrong, she's coming straight back home and will be homeschooled."_

" _Fine."_

" _Fine."_

_They were both quiet, Klaus glaring at Caroline as though she'd just made him agree to do something completely unthinkable, and Caroline resisting the urge to smirk at her victory._

" _I love you too, by the way," She said, grinning and slinging her arms over his shoulders, kissing him on the cheek._

" _You'd better," He grumbled._

XXX

" _She's 16, Klaus, it's completely normal."_

" _Oh, really? If it's so normal then why didn't she tell me?"_

_Caroline glowered at him, her hands on her hips, "Because she knew you'd react like this."_

" _That doesn't mean that we don't have a right to know," He said, before looking at her face slowly, and she could tell that it was dawning on him._

" _Did you know?" He asked, glaring at her._

" _Yes," She said quietly, but firmly._

" _Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, and she could tell that he was more hurt than angry._

_She gestured around the spare room that they were standing in, which had been ripped to shreds. After the swift and violent destruction of her favorite bookshelf when they'd had a disagreement about Caroline's safety, she'd had Ian and Theo keep one or two completely furnished at all times so that he could come in here and have his ridiculous tantrums throw things and not break anything she liked._

_So far it had been working._

" _Because I knew you'd react like this," She said again, giving him a piercing look._

" _But…" He said helplessly, "Caroline, I would rather have found out by you telling me than—"_

" _Than by you eavesdropping on her phone calls?" Caroline finished dryly._

" _Yes."_

" _Well maybe you shouldn't have done it, then."_

" _How exactly was I supposed to avoid that? She didn't burn any sage—"_

" _Which would have made you suspicious anyway," Caroline interrupted, shutting her mouth when he threw her an irritated glance._

" _I just worry for her, Caroline. What if something happens and she gets hurt?"_

_Caroline glared at him. "Getting hurt is a part of life. It happens to everyone. Learning to deal with that is important."_

" _But—"_

" _And if she's going to live forever, then you need to get used to her having independence," Caroline continued as though he hadn't interrupted, "What are you going to do when she's fifty? Lock her in her bedroom alone?"_

" _She's not fifty yet," Klaus pointed out stiffly._

" _No, she's not," Caroline agreed._

_They were both silent for a moment before Klaus pressed his lips together and then spoke. "I don't want her to be hurt."_

_Caroline shrugged. "I don't either, but it's basically inevitable."_

" _I don't like it."_

" _I know."_

" _He's older than her."_

_Caroline snorted and decided to ignore the obvious hypocrisy of the statement. "By two years. And he's graduating this year. They'll break up at the end of the year."_

" _All the more reason to stop her."_

_Caroline threw him a disbelieving look, almost amused. "You don't seriously think that you can stop her from seeing him, do you?"_

" _Of course I can. I'm her father."_

" _And she is much more capable of sneaking out than the average sixteen year old."_

_He scowled._

" _Look," Caroline continued, "I know that you want to protect her, and I do too, but she has to learn to protect herself."_

_He nodded, still looking put out._

_She moved closer to him, seeing his body relax slightly, which showed her that he was probably willing to accept physical touch. She put both her hands on his chest and rested her head against his shoulder, letting him wrap his arms around her and hold her to him._

" _Let her grow up," Caroline said quietly._

_She could feel him shift slightly and smiled into his shoulder when he nuzzled her ear. "We'll have to talk to her about behavior," He said, switching tactics._

_Caroline knew exactly where this was going, but decided to pick her battles. "Like what?"_

" _They have to stay in public rooms when he's over. No sage at all. If they're in a room with a door, it has to be open, and there always has to be an adult present in the house."_

" _That sounds fair."_

" _Good, because that's the rule."_

_Caroline snorted. "Are you saying that it would have still been a rule if I'd disagreed?"_

_He was silent for a moment, and she suspected that he was choosing his words carefully. "I think that if we didn't agree we'd have to discuss it, and I am sure that we would come to an agreement."_

_She made a soft sound of assent, cuddling closer into him._

XXX

" _Are you sure about this, love?"_

" _I think this will be the last push they need," Caroline said happily, finishing the text and setting her phone down on the bedside table, "The unresolved sexual tension is seriously killing me. They need to get themselves together."_

" _But," Klaus said, struggling to find an accurate way of stating his thoughts, "it's Kol."_

" _And?" Caroline said, raising an eyebrow._

" _Kol doesn't really have the…capacity for relationships."_

" _Yeah, well, neither did you," Caroline said, grinning._

" _That's different."_

" _How?"_

" _Because the moment I saw you I knew you were the one I wanted."_

_Caroline snorted. "Nice try, but the cliché compliment lost you points."_

" _I don't think they should be left alone with Hope for a whole weekend," Klaus insisted._

" _Puh-lease. Hope can handle herself, she's not ten anymore."_

" _Exactly. They might set a bad example. I don't want our daughter knowing anything about unresolved sexual tension."_

_Caroline snorted, and Klaus frowned wondering what he'd missed._

" _What?"_

" _Nothing," Caroline said quickly, her lips quirking slightly as she fought down a smile, "Why are you so set against this anyway?"_

_Klaus grimaced. "Kol is a bad influence by himself, let alone with a woman attached. I don't want Hope thinking that's how women should be treated."_

_Caroline raised her eyebrows, and he congratulated himself on his valid point. "Bonnie won't take it, she'll show Hope that women shouldn't stand for being treated like that. And that's if he does act like an ass, which he probably won't, Bonnie can take him."_

_Klaus sighed. He wasn't going to win, and they both knew it. "Fine."_

_Caroline gave him a brilliant smile._

" _Great. Kol's coming over now, and Bonnie will be here later."_

_He grimaced, and she smiled. "It's only for a weekend, Klaus, and Ian will be here the entire time."_

" _Oh, right, because Ian can defend himself against a thousand year old vampire," he said sarcastically._

" _Klaus…"_

_He huffed. "This is a terrible idea."_

" _You've said that a good three times now."_

" _Because it's true."_

" _Look, I'm done having this conversation. Our plane leaves tomorrow at eight o'clock. I want to sleep."_

_Klaus huffed. "If it goes wrong–"_

" _Yeah, yeah. You'll blame me. I know. Goodnight."_

_Caroline turned over pointedly, letting Klaus pull her against his chest, her eyes closed. They were both silent for a few minutes before Klaus spoke again. "I know I'm being ridiculous. I just don't fancy coming back to the mansion in shambles because the Bennett witch and my idiot brother can't get along"_

_Caroline snorted. "More likely it'll be in shambles because they can't keep their hands off of each other."_

_She didn't need to turn around to see the disgusted face that Klaus was making._

XXX

"Okay, well, to be fair, most of our arguments end really quickly," Caroline said slowly.

"Because I always let you win."

"Oh, you  _let_ me win?" Caroline asked, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded seriously and she huffed. "That's completely untrue. You've won arguments before."

"True, but only because I pick my battles."

She glared at him and he rolled his eyes, putting his fork down. "You're right. I don't let you win all the time."

She grinned at him and took another bite of chicken before stopping halfway before the fork was to her mouth. "Hey. I see what you did there."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Klaus said lightly.

 


	18. Sole Survivor

" **Sole Survivor" – April, 2015 – Three years**

* * *

 

" _Your tribe has spoken."_

"Oh my god, you've got to be fucking kidding me! I liked her," Caroline whined as she snuggled closer into Klaus's side.

"Even if she hadn't been voted off this week, she wouldn't have won, love."

"You don't know that," Caroline said, glaring at him.

"I suppose not," He said indulgently, wrapping his arm around her more firmly and squeezing her towards him.

They were quiet for a few moments while Klaus flipped through more options on their DVR before Caroline spoke again.

"Excited for tomorrow?"

He snorted. "I don't think I've ever been less excited for anything in my life."

"C'mon. It won't be that bad."

"Having all of your little friends over at once to meet my daughter and try to convince you how horrible I am and how you should leave?"

"They won't try to convince me to leave, and I know how horrible you are,  _and_  I like you anyway."

"So, who exactly is going to be here, again?" Klaus asked, resigned to his fate of socializing with her friends.

"Well, Matt and Rebekah, obviously. Bonnie and Stefan are coming, too. I invited Tyler, but if you can't behave I'll have to uninvite him, which I'd rather not do. He's bringing his new girlfriend Liv and her twin brother Luke, who I don't think you've met. I invited Elena, and I told her not to bring Damon, but I have a feeling he'll invite himself along. If he does, you need to let me deal with it, okay?"

Klaus nodded, but didn't say anything.

"It'll be fine, I promise."

"If you say so, love."

XXX

Caroline looked up at Klaus as he wandered into the kitchen with Hope, following the smell of baking cookies.

"You've been busy," He said, putting a squirming Hope down.

"Everyone should be here in about an hour," She said cheerfully as she rolled out the cookie dough, patches of flour coating her nose and cheeks, "Can you get me the cookie cutters from the cabinet?"

He obliged, lifting down the Ziploc bag of cookie-cutters Caroline had purchased earlier that day when she impulsively decided to make cookies, from which she fished out a circular one and began to lay the unbaked cookies carefully in perfect lines on the cookie sheet.

"Mama," Hope said, toddling up to Caroline and curling her fingers into Caroline's leg for balance, "Mama, Reba-Matt come?"

Caroline resisted the urge to laugh. Hope seemed to group Matt and Rebekah as one entity, calling them Reba-Matt as a single name, which never failed to amuse her.

"Yep, Uncle Matt and Auntie Rebekah are coming."

"Who, too?"

"Auntie Bonnie is  _also_ coming. And you're going to see some new people, too," Caroline said, laying the last cookie on the sheet.

"Hope, you need to move away from the oven," Caroline said.

"Why?"

"The oven is hot right now, and you could burn yourself."

"Why?"

"Because Mama is making cookies," Caroline explained patiently, now used to Hope's constant questions.

"Why?"

"Because your Mum's friends are coming over tonight," Klaus supplied, picking Hope up from the kitchen floor before she could approach the oven, "And we are going to go get ready."

"No."

"Yes, we are," Klaus, who lacked Caroline's patience, argued irritably, walking towards the back of the apartment with Hope in his arms.

Caroline smiled to herself.

Soon the cookies were almost done, Hope was dressed in clean clothes (though they were casual, as the dress Klaus had tried to put her in on Caroline's orders mysteriously burst into flames), and Caroline was setting the table.

Having learned his lesson two days before, as soon as Caroline decided on the cutlery and dishes she was going to use, he immediately packed the rest of them up besides the plastic plates and cups that they used for Hope and hid them in the closet.

It only took Caroline five minutes to notice that she no longer had the opportunity to change her mind, but before she could scold him, the doorbell rang.

"Stefan!" Caroline squealed as she opened the door, practically attacking her friend with a huge hug, "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Ripper," Klaus greeted, neither of them moving to hug or shake hands.

Hope peeked out from behind Caroline. "Who?"

"This is Uncle Stefan," Caroline supplied, picking Hope up, "Can you say 'hi'?"

"No," Hope said, burying her face in Caroline's shoulder.

"She is  _so_ your child," Stefan joked to Klaus, who rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"I'd hope so, considering all the work we put in to keep her alive."

Caroline pinned them both with a sharp look, and they immediately pasted identical sheepish expressions on their faces before grinning at each other when she turned back around to check on the cookies, handing Hope to Klaus on the way.

The doorbell rang again, and Klaus answered it this time. She heard Tyler's voice and immediately shut the oven door to speed outside. She was slightly surprised to see Klaus calmly allowing Tyler, Liv, and Luke into the apartment without any death threats or glares.

Tyler pulled her into a hug while Liv awkwardly stood next to him.

Caroline turned to Luke to give him a hug as well, though it was less enthusiastic. "You put Elena on killer vampire drugs," She said, slightly accusatorily as she pulled back.

"Yeah, well, not on purpose," He mumbled.

"Did you?" Klaus asked, looking mildly impressed.

Caroline hit him in the arm.

The timer went off and she gave Klaus a significant look. He rolled his eyes and put Hope down, heading into the kitchen to pull out the cookies and start dinner. A second later he poked his head back out of the kitchen. "Ripper, you can cook."

"Yeah…" Stefan said slowly, giving Klaus a suspicious look, most likely feeling slightly blindsided by the implied question before sighing and wandering into the kitchen after Klaus.

"Who?" Hope asked again.

"This is Tyler, Liv, and Luke."

Hope immediately reached out to Liv, who seemed to immediately understand, and took her hand. Hope giggled and then reached towards Luke, who exchanged a look with his sister before obligingly letting Hope read him.

"Liv," Hope said, pointing at Liv.

"Yes," Caroline said patiently, "That's Liv, and this is Luke and Tyler."

"Luke," Hope repeated.

"And Tyler," Caroline prompted again.

Hope finally seemed to take notice of Tyler at Caroline's prompting and shot him a confused glance before saying decisively, "Tire 'Olf."

"Yep, Tyler is a wolf," Caroline confirmed, shooting Tyler an apologetic look.

He shrugged.

The doorbell rang again and Caroline could hear Rebekah talking enthusiastically behind it. When she opened it she saw Rebekah, Matt, and Bonnie standing on the doorstep.

Rebekah stopped talking and turned immediately to Hope, who squealed. "Reba-Matt."

"Hey, Kiddo," Matt said, taking Hope from Caroline's arms.

Tyler raised an eyebrow, and Matt grinned at his friend, passing Hope off to Rebekah and pulling Tyler into a quick hug.

"Auntie Bonnie."

"Hey, Sweetie," Bonnie said, grinning at Hope and taking her from Rebekah.

"Is Elena coming?" Caroline mumbled quietly to Matt, who shrugged.

"I think so."

"Is she bringing Damon even though I told her not to?"

Matt grimaced, "If she does it's probably not going to be her fault."

When Elena rang the doorbell, Damon did, indeed, walk in behind her. Elena shot Caroline an apologetic look, and Caroline clutched Hope closer to her.

"You need to leave," She immediately said.

"Why?" Damon asked sounding genuinely confused.

"Because she doesn't want you here," Rebekah snapped.

"Aww, but Blondie, I haven't seen you in years. Didn't you miss me?"

"Leave, Damon."

"Caroline," Elena started, a hint of warning in her voice, "Can we not have a giant  _thing_?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't invite him because I didn't want to have a 'giant thing'," Caroline said, making airquotes clumsily with one hand as she balanced Hope on her hip.

She felt Klaus come up behind her and turned to him. "Let me handle this," She reminded him. He nodded, but Caroline was fairly sure that he was mentally listing all the ways he could possibly kill Damon.

" _Handle_ it?" Damon asked incredulously, "What are you going to do, Barbie? Set a unicorn on me? Choke me with a rainbow? Hit me with a stun gun of positivity?"

"Klaus, can you take Hope for a second?" Caroline asked, shoving her daughter into Klaus's arms without waiting for an answer, and then speeding towards Damon, landing a punch squarely on his jaw.

She suspected that he let her land the hit, knowing that he couldn't really retaliate without getting torn limb from limb.

He shook his head as his jaw healed. "Fighting in front of your kid? Classy, Blondie."

"Leave before I have to waste a perfectly good pair of Louboutins stabbing you in the eyes."

"Caroline," Elena said warningly, before there was a snapping sound and Rebekah gave Caroline an innocent look as Elena felt to the floor her feet.

"Rebekah, seriously?"

"What? You said we couldn't touch Damon. You never said anything about Elena. And stop frowning at me, you lot. You've all probably wanted to do that for ages."

No one spoke, though Caroline wasn't sure whether it was because they agreed or because they were afraid of Rebekah.

Damon immediately picked up Elena off the floor, cradling her in his arms. "She'll be really angry at you," He said quietly, his voice serious.

Caroline shrugged. "Frankly, I'm not too concerned. If she cared about my feelings at all, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, because you'd be dead, which shows that I valued her friendship a  _lot_ more than she valued mine. Now, if you could please leave so that we can have a quiet dinner without you, that would be fabulous."

Damon left, slamming the door behind him.

Klaus handed Hope back to Caroline and told them all dinner was ready.

Dinner was mostly uneventful. Hope was put to bed after dinner, and they all enjoyed a few bottles of wine and the Mystic Falls gang told embarrassing stories about Matt and Caroline to the two Originals, while the two victims laughed it off and argued with their own version of events.

Everyone on their best behavior, and all in all it was a good night.

 


	19. Transition

" **Transition" - May, 2030 - Age 18**

* * *

 

Caroline awoke to feel Klaus disentangling himself from her arms.

"Trying to sneak out on me?" She asked sleepily.

She felt him pause and then get back into bed, pulling her close to him.

"Never love, I just have some things to do. Unfortunately, I'll be away for most of the day today," He said, his breath on her ear making her shiver.

"Mmm? Why?"

"I have to take care of a few things in the city."

"What kinds of things?" She asked curiously.

He grimaced. "Apparently there's a small coalition of werewolves outside the city that have decided to attempt to overthrow me."

"Hmm. I'm sure that'll go very well for them," Caroline mumbled.

She felt Klaus's chest rumble in laughter behind her. "Well, they won't have very much time to succeed. I'm visiting them in an hour or so."

"By 'visiting them' do you mean 'slaughtering their entire village'?"

"Yes."

She still wasn't comfortable with him murdering huge groups of people, and she doubted she ever would be. She suspected she might feel differently about his murderous tendencies if she didn't have Hope to worry about.

Unfortunately for the werewolf packs, Hope was her first priority, which meant that she'd trade the lives of thirty traitorous werewolves for her daughter's wellbeing any day.

"Why were you leaving this early though?"

He never left before she got up, and if he did he always woke her up to tell her he was leaving. This whole thing screamed something being wrong. He stiffened slightly and then squeezed her tightly for a moment. "It's just more convenient," He said, getting out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans.

She was immediately suspicious. "Oh? How so?"

He was an excellent liar in general, but he could never get one past her—not anymore, at least. He shrugged, and Caroline frowned before hearing some movement in the hall. She immediately sprung out of bed and walked out to see Hope waiting near the room, fully dressed. She turned back to Klaus. "What's going on?"

"Look, Mum, don't get mad—" Caroline and Klaus both snorted as one, and Caroline glared at him, "—but I asked Dad if I could come along for the day. I still don't know anything about what he does, and if I'm going to be in charge at some point-"

"Are you serious right now?" She interrupted, whirling around to look at Klaus, "Why didn't you tell me? Is that why you tried to sneak off?"

He shot her a reproachful look, and she was reminded very vividly of a puppy that had done something incredibly stupid that he knew his owner wouldn't like, and was trying to make up for it by being cute.

She was not amused.

"Look, I'm eighteen. I'm an adult, and I'm going whether you like it or not, Mum."

Caroline gave Klaus the evil eye, and he winced. "Err-Hope, perhaps it would be better if–"

"I'm going," Hope said firmly. "If you try to go without me, I'll just follow you."

Caroline glared at her daughter (who glared right back even more intensely) for a few moments before sighing. "Fine. Klaus, you'd better keep the closest eye on her possible–"

"What kind of father do you think I am?" he asked irritably.

"The kind who takes his daughter along on work outings that involve killing people," Caroline replied. "You're also going to feed Hope some of your blood just in case."

Klaus rolled his eyes but bit into his wrist obligingly, holding it out to his daughter, who curled her lip, her eyes darting back from her mother to the blood.

"Drink or you're not going," Caroline said, her voice indicating that her decision was final.

Klaus bit his wrist again (as it had healed within seconds), and held it out to his daughter, who took a tiny bit before backing up.

"You know, if you're going to transition someday, you should probably stop being squeamish about blood," Caroline pointed out. "I'd also like to point out that you're going off to kill a bunch of people, and blood is probably going to be involved."

"It's not blood in general, it's Dad's blood," Hope said, making a face.

"I feel like I should be offended."

Hope shrugged. "You can if you want. I won't stop you. When are we leaving?"

"Go before I change my mind," Caroline mumbled, running a hand through her hair and dodging Klaus's attempt to kiss her on the cheek before slamming the bedroom door behind her and flopping back into bed.

**XXX**

"So, what exactly are we doing?"

"We're going to investigate the pack, and, if necessary, I'm going to kill them," Klaus said calmly, his hands in his pockets as they walked together towards the bayou.

"Oh," Hope said, her eyes darting around.

She'd never been to the bayou before, mostly because there had never been a reason to go, and she was taking in all the sights.

"I have some ground rules," Klaus continued slowly.

"You mean Mum has some ground rules," Hope said teasingly.

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter who made them. It matters that they are followed. Understood?"

"Yep."

"If I tell you to run, you run back to the Quarter as fast as you can, and you do not look back. I don't care what they're doing. If they're torturing me or locking me in some sort of ritual that looks deadly, and I tell you to run, you run."

"Okay," Hope said, having no intention of following the directions if she could help somehow.

He seemed to know this and gave her an assessing glance before continuing. "You do not fight unless it is in self-defense. You are simply watching."

"Okay."

He nodded, apparently satisfied with her response, and they kept walking until he flung an arm out to stop her from moving. "If you are killed, you have my blood in your system, so you will begin to transition. I know that we were told that it would happen anyway should you die, but we just wanted to be sure. If that happens, I need you to run back to the house as fast as you can. We don't want to trigger your werewolf gene by accident. All right?"

"Okay."

"In addition, you will not undermine my authority, do you understand? No matter what I do or how gruesomely I kill, you will save your questions for after we get home."

She nodded, wondering why it would even be necessary to caution her. She knew that he'd killed before (how else would he have taken over New Orleans, otherwise?)

They walked together to the werewolf camp, and she saw her father practically change into a different person before her eyes. His posture straightened, his walk became more confident, almost a swagger, and a smirk bloomed on his face.

It was terrifying.

"Come out," he boomed, projecting rather than yelling, his arms thrown out in a mockingly welcoming gesture. "I know you're there. I can smell you all."

She almost instinctively sniffed, and didn't notice anything different, but remembering her father's warning, she kept her mouth shut.

"Don't make me find you, because I will, and I will not be merciful when I do."

A man came out from behind one of the trees, and Hope heard a sharp gasp from the other direction. One by one, the werewolves emerged from the tree line, and her father's sadistic smile grew with each that revealed themselves.

He clasped his hands behind his back. "I've heard that there's a plan to kill me," he said casually, pacing back and forth.

The wolves remained silent.

"If anyone would like to come forward and tell me, I may let you live."

No one moved, and Klaus kept pacing, a calculating expression taking over his face. He stopped suddenly and walked up with purpose to the first wolf who had emerged. "Care to shed some light on the rumor?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man stuttered.

"Oh, I think you do. I think you do and you're willing to tell me in order to keep your miserable traitorous life."

"Don't do it!"

Klaus, Hope, and the pack all swiveled to look at a young woman, her head held high. "Don't tell him," she repeated.

"So there is a plan?" Klaus asked, his smirk growing. "Well, if no one comes forward with the details in the next ten seconds, I'll have to kill you all to ensure my safety," he said. "Oh, and I'd kill the rest of your pack, too. You know, just to be thorough," he added, almost as an afterthought.

The wolves remained silent.

"Ten...Nine...Eight...Seven...Si—"

"It was his idea," the first wolf burst out, pointing at another in the middle of the line. "He did it."

"Is that so?" Klaus asked, turning to the wolf. "Is this true?"

The accused wolf stood his ground, his jaw set.

"What was the plan?" Klaus asked, stalking closer to the wolf predatorily.

"We were to lure you here tomorrow, and a witch would be here to desiccate you."  
"You're just a fountain of information, aren't you?" Klaus said, turning to the wolf who had spoken (the same one who had spilled the information so far). "Who is the witch?"

The man seemed to figure that he should go big or go home. "Genevieve."

Klaus snorted. "Of course it is," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Right, well, thank you for the information."

Hope had to restrain a scream as the wolf's heart fell on the ground.

There was a split second where everyone stood still before the wolves attacked, running at Klaus, who efficiently tugged out every heart. Hope stood back from the fight, having expected something similar to happen, but was taken by surprise when she felt someone grab her from behind.

There was a sharp pain in her neck, and the world went black.

**XXX**

When she woke, the first thing she registered was how  _bright_ everything was. The smells and colors and sounds were all so much more intense, but in a good way. She blinked again, her eyes focusing on her father and mother bending over her, both looking like they'd run a marathon.

"How are you feeling?" Caroline asked anxiously.

Hope considered her answer for a moment or two. How  _did_ she feel?

She felt...new. Excited. She felt like the world had suddenly become so much bigger and more promising. She closed her eyes and let herself focus on her body. Warmth spread from the tips of her fingers and toes all the way to her still-beating heart. Everything had clicked into place. She felt like everything finally  _belonged_.

"I feel...I feel  _right_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this. I'm a bit sad that this universe is closing, but I hope this drabble felt like a good end point.  
> I've gotten quite a few messages telling me that they don't want me to end this story, but all good things have to end sometime, right? I have a lot of other projects that I'm working on, so if you haven't already checked out my other fics, and you want more things to read, I hope you do :)  
> You can find the rest of my fics that I haven't posted here yet (as well as all my AU/AH fics, which I don't plan on posting to AO3) on fanfiction.net under my penname, Angelikah.  
> I am on tumblr at thetourguidebarbie.  
> Hugs!  
> -Angie


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